Pumpkin Soul
by catsvrsdogscatswin
Summary: Kage and the others have beaten the Kishin, but there's a wee little problem…Nightstalker are being blamed for every little petty crime and are at an all time low for members. Solution? Well, obviously they need more people to join the clan, but people aren't exactly willing. On top of that, what's with this "Arro" guy? Why is he so interested in Nightstalker? And what is he up to?
1. New Beginnings

_**Mkay then, this is the sequel idea. Happy happy joy joy to you all I'm sure. :) Akuma gets the honor of being the title image this time. (Last time it was Kage) If anyone else saw those pics somewhere else, that's because I got them off the Internet. I search for character images extensively, so I have a reference image for the particular character I'm writing. I wouldn't be too surprised if some were actual anime characters, or just fan art.**_

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_In what way is a raven like a writing desk?_

_Poe wrote on both._

_-AN_

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_3__rd__ Person's POV:_

A sleek, black-painted motorbike zoomed silently up the cobbled stone streets, rider shrouded in darkness that was pierced by the occasional flickering pumpkin streetlamp, revealing a dark bike helmet that hid their eyes. The rumbling purr eased to a stop, and a kickstand was shoved down by a black-booted foot. The rider got off, removing the helmet and shaking out fluffy blonde hair. "Kage, what took you? We've been waiting for…_seconds_!" Lock called merrily from her stand at the outdoor bar, and the female Nightstalker rolled her eyes, sliding onto the stool beside her friend and waving off a barmaid with a single sharp glance. Shadows shifted, and another black-clothed figure walked calmly out of the empty air, holding two mugs as his brother exited behind him. "How goes the search?" Barrel asked, sipping his drink as Shock absently played lightning across the surface of his.

"Bad. Now that the clan's exposed as real, a lot of murders previously unsolved are being blamed on us, and there's damn few who want to join." Kage grumbled crossly, folding her arms as her friends all made consoling noises. "Hey, where are Akuma and DK?" Shock asked suddenly, looking up from his currently sparking mug. Kage sighed again, shadows curling up from the floor and rubbing against her like affectionate cats. She let them, which put her friends on high alert, because Kage _never_ let anything fawn on her, least of all the shadows. "They're out looking too. But it's damn hard to meet the standards, and plus we just can't be everywhere at once. I know you guys are trying locally, but we need more people out there." She said wearily, and Lock made a face. "DWMA not helping out?" Kage gave her a tired and annoyed glare, as if to say "what do you think?"

"Lord Death isn't stupid. He wants to make sure we aren't a threat, and although he trusts you guys and us, you may very well be on the bottom in a few weeks, and until the new leader is elected, neither me nor Akuma are officially pardoned. The Nightstalker could very well be their next big headache now that Arachnophobia's gone and the Kishin's defeated. If we do rebuild the clan, we still might not get almost any say in the decisions the leader makes, especially me and Akuma." She said absently, resting her chin on her folded arms and staring off into the distance. She remained that way for a while, and then stirred. "Well, I just came to report in, Kid's waiting for me at Gallows Manor." She said, standing and waving to her friends as she walked off into the night, hands in her pockets. She straddled her bike, in a bad enough temper not to put her helmet back on as it roared off, purring its way through the haunted-feeling woods surrounding Halloween Town.

_God, sometimes I do wish I was allowed to just kidnap a few bratlings and a meister or two and force the ritual on them. This multi-tasking, not to mention DK, is grating on me like a cheese shredder. If it wasn't for my mental flexibility I __**would**__ have snatched someone by now._ She thought irritably to herself, gunning the engine to go faster. It wasn't like her to use a bike now, not when she was the Nightmare Queen and basically the shadow's goddess. She could shadow-walk like a meister could hold their weapon partner; it was effortless, like breathing. But she loved this bike. It was nice to ride it once in a while. Freeing. Cleansing. She snorted, rolling her eyes as she shook her head, as if to flick away the thought. _Like hell __**I'm**__ ever going to be "cleansed"._ She thought, staring ahead of her absently as she let shadows flit around her like bats, black as midnight and fluid as water.

_Kage's POV:_

I knocked, leaning on the doorframe in exhaustion. It opened, and Kid's eyes widened. "Kage! Are you okay?" he asked worriedly, giving me his shoulder to lean on as I managed to stumble to a couch and collapse upon it. "Yeah…" I moaned, accepting the cup of hot cocoa (perfectly symmetrical of course) and letting my muscles ease out of their frozen positions. "Just dog tired?" he asked, sitting on the couch opposite me. I nodded, chugging the drink rapidly and then putting the empty mug down, closing my eyes as I flopped back on the couch. "I'm trying to get father to help, but he just said the same thing you did." He added after a moment of silence, his warm hand resting on my forehead. "Mm-hmm." He sighed, dropping his hand and nudging under me as he lifted my body, putting me back down as my head rested in his lap. "You haven't gotten any sleep in days, have you?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Or eaten?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Or contacted DK and Akuma?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Are you even awake?"

"Mm-hmm."

He chuckled, stroking my hair away from my cheek as his cold ring brushed against my forehead. "You're such a stubborn girl Kage. I don't care how urgent it is, you need sleep and food just as much as anyone. And right now as a Grim Reaper and your boyfriend, you are getting some sleep." He ordered, and I curled into him, nuzzling into his shirt. "Mm-hmm." I mumbled into it, feeling his arms wrap around my waist and hold me as my eyes fluttered shut once more and I slept, the utter blackness and quiet of the completely exhausted and overworked.

_Kid's POV:_

Kage relaxed into me, her body going limp as I sighed and cuddled her closer, happy she was alright, albeit worked to the bone. "OY!" I looked up as DK kicked the door all the way down the hallway, stomping in with a certain glint in his eyes that made me swallow, Akuma temporarily displaced. "ALRIGHT REAPER-BOY, WHERE'S KAGE?! SHE HASN'T TALKED WITH US FOR-oh, there she is." He roared, then blinked and let Akuma's green eye fade through as he gave himself an annoyed glare. "Sorry Kid, but I couldn't stop him, we haven't heard from her since…two weeks ago." Akuma said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck and looking away as I sighed. "She hasn't eaten or slept since then either. Has she ever let herself be driven like this before?" I asked, shifting her so she could be more comfortable on my chest and glancing at the others.

DK snorted and Akuma sighed. "Better question would be when has she _not _been driven like this." Akuma said wearily as he walked over and gave her a few pokes, DK's eye alight with mischievous curiosity. I gave him a ferocious glare and he scowled, backing away. "Any progress?" I asked, and they sighed, shaking their head. "Nope, nadda, zip, zero, _nein_, _nyet_, _non_, and pretty much nothing. Not even a nibble." Akuma said wearily, collapsing on the couch and kicking his feet up on the coffee table with a sigh. "It's almost as if we have a bad reputation." DK added with grim humor, his face momentarily lighting in a smirk but quickly dissolving into a scowl. I studied them for a moment. Akuma's body sagged imperceptibly, and DK was not speaking as they both closed their eye and breathed out another long sigh. "You're just as exhausted as she is, aren't you?" I asked shrewdly, and Akuma winced as DK gave me another glare, before looking away with a scowl. "Yeah. What you gonna make out of it Reaper boy?" he growled, and Akuma gave me an apologetic wince. "Sorry, everyone's in a bad mood right now, tensions are high and we're pretty much the only thing anyone can blame anything on right now. We're being worked to the bone." He said absently, and I nodded sympathetically.

"I would ask father to help, but he said the same things you did about why we couldn't." I said apologetically, and DK nodded drowsily. "We're gonna bunk here if that's…" he started to mumble, but he pitched forward and lay on the floor, snoring, before he could finish his sentence. I rolled my eyes, getting out from under Kage carefully and tucking her into the couch, finding some spare blankets and pillows and setting them down on the coffee table, getting Kage taken care of before putting a pillow next to Akuma and DK and draping a blanket over the snoring male as he grabbed the pillow, tucking it under his chin and mumbling "Panzerfaust snuggly…" before rolling over and falling deeper asleep. I shook my head in amusement, mentally reminding myself to hold that over his head as I went upstairs to inform Liz and Patty about our guests.

_Kage's POV:_

I went from fast asleep to instant-awareness in a split second, sitting up with a gasp as my left arm turned into a black blade all the way up to my elbow, grabbing the clothes of the person in front of me and stabbing the sword towards their throat. He grabbed me above the blade, wrenching it to the side as the tip just barely grazed his throat, bringing a sprinkle of blood up against my face as we tumbled off the couch I had been sleeping on and rolled across the floor, trading blows that he blocked with apparent ease. Suddenly the door burst in, and we both looked up as Liz stood there, Patty in hand and a very angry look indeed on her face. "It's okay. Training." I said quickly, and Akuma nodded under me as she let her sister transform back to human, looking even angrier, if that was possible.

Then I noticed they were both in pajamas, and Liz's hair was messed up to a degree she'd never tolerate if she was going out. _I think we woke them up… _I thought nervously to Akuma, and he swallowed hard._ All those in favor of not being torn apart, head for the exit. If there isn't one, __**make one**_. DK said quietly, and we looked at each other, then at Liz. "I thought I heard you guys. C'mon, breakfast is ready." Kid said, sticking his head through the door and smiling at us. I looked at Liz, then down at Akuma, then to DK's red and black eye. "Sure. Akuma almost got the jump on me this time." I said, getting off as he nodded and rubbed the thin line of blood on his throat, following me into the kitchen as Liz and Patty both sighed and did the same.


	2. Bright -or dark?- Idea

_**Next chapter then. I was gonna focus on the BB, but I got a wave of inspiration and I just couldn't resist publishing just a FEW chapters for you guys…**_

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_Imagination is where all our fear originates. It is the mother of terror and mankind's greatest weakness._

_-Asura_

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_Kage's POV:_

I hummed, hands in my pockets as the music connected to my tiny MP3 boomed into my ears. "_I…want to kill…everybody in-the-world, do-edo-e-do, I…want to kill… ever-y-body in the world, do-edo-e-do. I want to kill everybody in the world; I want to kill everybody in the world, I want to kill everybody in world, I want to kill everybody in world, I want to kill everybody in the world; I want to kill everybody in the world, I want to kill everybody in world, __**I want to kill everybody in world**__!_" (Kill Everybody by Skrillex) I chuckled at the ironic wording, turning it off as I grabbed a concrete wall, vaulting over it to see the basketball court where Kid and I had been forced into our first date and we all had had a "victory game" after we had killed Asura, DK and Liz included. I sighed; resting my hand on my fist as I idly chucked a rock across the tarmac, watching as it skittered away to the other side behind the bushes.

"You just gonna sulk away our visit?" a male voice said next to me, and I smirked as I closed my eyes and shook my head, Akuma's soul blossoming beside me as DK released their Soul Protect. "Damn right we aren't. We haven't seen Kid and the others since we killed Asura, and that was like what, three months ago?" he asked, giving me a stern glance before putting his hands behind his head and sighing at the basketball court. I nodded silently, contemplating that, and DK sighed noisily. "I keep telling ya guys, bop a few kids on the head, drag them home, wave a wand, and bibbidi-bobbidi-boo, one resurrected clan without all this running and sleep-deprivation." He grumbled, making several hand motions to illustrate his meaning. "Shut it DK." We both said in unison, and he made an offensive hand gesture at me, obviously unable to do it to himself.

"Yo, what're you guys doing here?" We turned as one to see Blackstar, Soul, Maka, Tsubaki, and Crona watching us from the entrance, and I shrugged. "We're on break, so I thought I'd stop by…" I said with a yawn, covering my mouth with a hand and silently wishing for more sleep than the six or seven hours we had gotten last night. Or whenever it was. "That's cool. Wanna play a game n' catch up?" he asked, chucking the ball to us as I caught it, gripping the wall with my feet alone as I wobbled ever so slightly. "Yeah, sure. We need a time to chill out." I said cheerfully, tossing it back and jumping down with my brother as we shrugged out of our jackets, now in matching tank tops as the discarded clothing was caught by shadows and whisked into nonexistence. He grinned, catching it and dribbling it once as the others gathered in our usual teams. "Alright! Bring it on!" he shouted, starting the offense as we quickly skipped backward to defend.

_Hazel's POV:_

I slowly opened my eyes, and then quickly squeezed them shut. The light above me was blinding, so bright…so scalding… Then I shivered, the cold, unyielding metal under me raising goosebumps on my bruised arms and skinny legs, my hair cropped closely around my ears in a pixie-bob cut. The leather straps under my chin, across my wrists, over my ankles, across my stomach, and on my knees and elbows immobilized me completely. I couldn't move, couldn't lift my head or turn my neck, my arms completely bound and my legs motionless. I ached all over. My face felt hot and my lips cracked. I licked them nervously, only to wince as the skin broke and the salty tang of blood, a scent and odor I had grown all too familiar with these past few years seeping into my mouth as my lips stung with pain.

I squinted my eyes open again, becoming accustomed to the blinding overhead lamp once more and glancing around, trying to see if there were any changes. The lab was the same however, and I relaxed just a tiny bit. Of course, it was still straight out of a horror movie. Clean, clinical overhead lamps burned above a grid structure of metal tables, some empty, some occupied by a sleeping or struggling body. No doctors at this time of day. Blood spattered the floor and walls, which were cleaned once every few weeks. The last cleaning crew must've just come through, because there were only a few stray flecks on the ground at the corners of my limited vision. It was dim otherwise, the only lighting the painfully bright lamps. They were there for a reason I always shuddered at.

So the doctors could see what they were dissecting.

I swallowed hard, nervously straining against my bonds._ They said they "fixed" my genes so I inherited my family's weapon form, so can't I just break these stupid leather straps and go free?_ I asked myself, and slowly took a deep breath, lying back. _Okay, Nana said you need to envision yourself in a safe, empty shell, just drifting…I can do this…I'm not anywhere…I'm safe and with my own soul…_ I didn't feel different at all, and I sighed as I opened my eyes. Then I almost screamed, staring in shock at my arm, which had turned into a long cannon barrel, snapping the thin leather restraints around my arm and elbow. I didn't move anything, looking to my other arm and blinking in surprise as I saw it was normal, wiggling my fingers a little and then slowly transforming my freed arm back to normal before clawing madly at my restraints, trying to free myself.

_Kage's POV:_

I mentally growled in annoyance as I sighed wearily, hiding my yawn as Blackstar pranced around the blacktop and Crona smiled hesitantly, watching as Maka pouted beside us and Soul smirked to himself, Akuma just as beat as I was, but on the winning team, if that made any sense. Maka, Tsubaki, Blackstar, and Soul were all tired looking too though, Crona the only one amongst us that wasn't looking dead beat. "Why aren't you tired?" I whined, and he blinked in surprise as Ragnarok popped out of his back. "Cause I'm powering him up ya stupid blonde! If it weren't for my Black Blood he'd be staggering all over the courts! What, you think he's got his own power when he's _this_ damn skinny! YOU'RE AS THIN AS A POST YA CRETIN!" he screeched, shaking the pink-haired meister rapidly by the head as Crona wearily batted him away.

"Ragnarok, not now…" he whined, and the black blob sullenly retreated into his back with a few more muttered insults. _They're both improving, Crona isn't submitting to Ragnarok's insults nearly so much and Ragnarok isn't beating up on him nearly so often, rarely if ever._ I mused, and Akuma nodded just barely. _Yeah…hey, about the black blood…do you think…_ We both blinked, and slowly the beginnings of a plan filtered through my mind. "See ya guys later, we have some stuff to do." I said rapidly, quickly fading into shadow as Akuma gave them a nod and quickly slipped into the blackness with me.

_Kid's POV:  
_ I watched in detached amusement as Akuma wolfed his food down, watched sternly by Liz and Patty, who were still rather mad at them both for waking them up this morning. I then frowned a little, looking around. "Where's Kage?" I asked suspiciously, and Akuma came up for air and to answer. "Hmm? She's busy writing down some notes for an experiment we were thinking of…" he mumbled, and then dived back into his food as DK's eye watched me warily. He swallowed hard, looking back up at me again. "Sorry about the table manners, but neither of us have eaten for days." He explained, and then lowered his head again to eat as I frowned thinly and walked up the stairs to Kage's room, opening the door to see her at her desk, overhead lights on and papers strewn about her.

I curiously approached, seeing her head down on the desk and her arm outstretched with a pen in it, the page's ink still wet as I leaned down, quickly placing my fingers on her neck to make sure she had and pulse and smiling when I felt the gentle throb under my fingertips._ It's funny, normally I'd just be worried about someone falling asleep, but with Kage I'm worried that she might've been killed._ I thought, absently looking over the papers. They were scattered like leafy rain all over the desk, some with diagrams, some with tables, and most with just scribbled notes and long, complicated problems that made my head hurt just to look at them. Her head rested on a page with a DNA strand depicted on it, and I cocked my head as I recognized the distinctive strand of a Nightstalker, along with one I didn't recognize. Her hand currently rested on a paper that showed a diagram with two columns, one labeled "E" and the other labeled "S", with a long scrawl of numbers under each one and two labels on the opposite side, BB and NB.

The NB column had many numbers, but the BB column had sparser data, and there were many equations on that side of the sheet as if she had tried to figure out something based on very little information. The thin trail of ink that led to the pen loosely gripped in her right hand was in the middle of a sentence, and I read it curiously. "_If the calculations are correct, not only can we use this to fix the problems we have right now, I think I might be able to s-_" That was all. She must've fallen asleep mid-sentence. I was suddenly burning with curiosity, but the rest of the sheets she had written were not only seemingly random equations, the diagrams made no sense and I hadn't paid much attention in chemistry or science, but to be fair since Stein had taken over "Science" merely meant watching the crazy doctor hack open some poor living specimen. I sighed in resignation and leaned down to gently shake her awake, itching to ask her what she had been writing about.

Suddenly I was blasted back, inky, strangling darkness wrapping around my legs, arms, and throat as I gagged, the shadows feeling slimy, wet against my jugular as I was forced into a wall, feeling a warm hand wrap in my clothes and another twist in my hair, forcing my head back as something sharp started to whip through the air. "WAIT!" I screamed as the slash paused, and the shadows melted away as Kage let the one in her hand relax, the blade having stopped just before I screamed my protest. "Ugh…Kid, what are you doing up here?" she murmured, rubbing tiredly at her eyes and yawning a little as she peered blearily at me. I stifled a smile, mentally thinking how adorable she was when she did that and sighing a little. "Its dinnertime, I didn't want you to get hungry." I said softly, and she nodded, suddenly pitching forward as I caught her and held her up, gently pulling her to the bed and sitting down as she mumbled in protest.

"Sorry 'bout attacking you…Nightstalker instinct…" she managed to whisper, her eyes slipping closed as I nodded and gently brushed her hair away from her face. "It's okay. I know your body doesn't like being startled." I told her, watching as she nodded sleepily and then sat up a little, snapping her fingers as shadows swelled, enveloping her desk and washing away as I sighed in disappointment, the papers completely gone as she lowered her head again, closing her eyes as the shadows pulled her blanket over her shoulders and settled around her neck. "Mmm…I'll eat something whenever I wake up…" she mumbled, and then she was silent as I got up, walking over to the door and opening it. I gave her room one more look, and my eyes seemed to gravitate towards the desk by sheer accident. I narrowed my eyes, biting my lip a little before closing the door and walking downstairs, hands in my pockets. _What is she working on? Is she just hiding it because she still doesn't like people seeing what she does? Or is she afraid I'll find out something she doesn't want me to?_

_**The code she was using was rather simple, and I shall illuminate.**_

_**E: Endurance**_

_**S: Strength**_

_**BB: Black Blood**_

_**NB: Normal Blood**_

_**Ooh, does that make you all wonder? I hope it does, that was my intent. MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! *evil doctor pose* Ooh, who is this "Hazel" and what is she speaking of? Where is she? I can't wait to expose this all to you guys; it's the reason why I can never keep a secret! I always want to see the person's face when I give them their gift! It kinda sucks around Christmas, because I'm always like "Maybe I can just give them to my parents early…and "May" will love hers…maybe I can just give them to them early this year…" But then they hold me back from the X-mas tree and tell me I have to wait until Christmas to give it to them. BUT I WANNA DO IT NOW! Crazy, aren't I? Well, Revewi, Request, Rcomment. Auf Wedersien!**_


	3. Experimentation

_**Hmm…lalala…boredom. I now write and publish chappy three for you nice peoples.**_

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_Things are most valuable once they're lost._

_-Tiger Magic_

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_Kage's POV:_

Akuma was silent for several moments after my declaration and showing of the papers I had written out. He slowly took one, reading over it with DK's eye clouded over and hidden with white and green. "I dunno about this…" he finally said slowly, and DK's eye finally faded through, without any of the mocking confidence and aura of authority he usually projected. I guessed it was him that had spoken, as Akuma was still mutely regarding the scribbled parchments. "If it works though…" he finally muttered, looking up as DK swallowed hard. "That's my point. I've never known any life but this; I'll have to learn a whole new way to move, a whole new way to think, a whole new way to fight, all of it if this does work. The last time I _did_ do all that was hundreds of years ago." DK said firmly, handing me back the sheets as I nodded and let the shadows take them up again. "True enough. But I still wanna at least try Phase One of the procedure; I've confirmed that it won't do anything to us at all but the obvious."

My brother and our demon friend paused for a moment, and then slowly nodded. "Fine, I'll take a shot in the dark. Let's try it out." he said, and I grinned as I turned and ripped the shadows open to reveal a portal to Stein's door. I firmly grabbed his sleeve before he could protest and dragged him through before knocking once, stepping back with him as we waited for Stein to open it. We heard a squeaking sound, and quickly stepped back a little more as the door banged open, the mad meister's chair crashing against the door frame and spilling him backwards onto the ground. "You two? What do you want?" he asked, clearly askance as he recognized us, and I quickly summoned my notes. "You've done operations on Crona once or twice, yeah?" He raised an eyebrow, standing up and slowly straddling his chair as he clicked his glasses up and merely looked at us, the hot midmorning sun making them shiny and impenetrable. "Yeah, one. The kid got beat up pretty bad in the fight with Medusa; I had to operate as soon as we got back to the DWMA to save his life. I did his check up too, come to think of it." he said neutrally, and I silently handed the notes, watching in anticipation as he started to flick through them.

"You're the only one still alive that knows anything about the Black Blood except for Crona and Soul. Both of them wouldn't and don't know how to do what we want them to do." I said as his eyebrows slowly crept up, and he looked up at both of us as he slowly pocketed my notes. "You want me to do this?" We nodded slowly. "I see why you didn't ask your friends. You haven't told any of them either, have you?" We both shook our heads again. "And I see from your notes you can perform another operation on Akuma and the Demon King. But you also say they need to want to, and you need to be conscious and magically able when I do. That all?" he asked sarcastically, and we both nodded. "Now that we're on the subject, I changed my mind. Akuma, I think we should try this." DK said falteringly, his eyes fading back into being as Akuma sighed. "Fine. Whatever. I actually think this would be a pretty damn good idea." He admitted, and Stein started to grin as we stepped forward, kicking his feet off the floor of his porch to send himself flying into the hall as we followed, passing a small living room and several closets on the way until he smacked into a wall inches from a door labeled "LAB".

"Sit down, any bed'll be fine." He muttered absently, taking off his glasses and putting them on a tray as he started rummaging in some cupboards, gesturing to the blood-stained lab tables we both examined dubiously and sat on, directly across from each other. I slid my jacket off my shoulders as Akuma copied me, hanging it neatly in the shadows as it was wrapped in darkness and swallowed up, disappearing without a trace as Stein dragged a large medical rack over to us, starting to clip us up to several strange machines as slow beeps filled the air, most likely the ones keeping track of our heartbeats. He grinned as he grabbed a scalpel and turned to me, but I grabbed his wrist before it could touch my skin. "You do anything, _anything_ to us when we're under the knife except for what's in my note sheets; I swear I'll kill you. Got it?" I asked him icily, and he nodded once with a scowl of disappointment as I let go of his scarred wrist and let him start his operation.

_Kid's POV:_

I nervously walked around the neighborhood with Blackstar, Tsubaki, Liz, Patty, Maka, and Soul our whole group, except for Kage and Akuma. Her kitten, which she had dubbed Salem, was trotting at my heels and searching the night for her mistress with her lamplike green eyes. I knew they couldn't have gone already, Kage had said they were staying and they just had gone to take a few notes from a scientist they knew, for their experiment. I didn't like this experiment, or what it sounded like. Neither did the others, and we were getting a little worried. "KAGE! Are you out there!" I called, and we received no answer as Blackstar started trying to whistle the song they used, only to discover he couldn't whistle. This frustrated him for several minutes, and he spent long seconds trying to get his lips right and blow as Tsubaki offered advice and Maka showed him, hiding the grin on her face as he ranted angrily.

"Hey, maybe Dr. Stein knows the other doctors here. We can ask him and then look them up one by one." Soul said, hands behind his head as he yawned, and I nodded. It made sense. We all slowly walked to his lab, knocking on the door several times as we waited for him to come out. When he did not we all looked at each other, then jumped as his voice growled angrily from a speaker beside the doors. "_What? I'm in the middle of a very important dissection, whatever is happening now can wait._" He grumbled, and I shuffled my feet. "Uh, Kage and Akuma are missing, and we were wondering-" I mumbled, and he snickered. "_Yeah, they're fine. They asked me to try something on them, and I didn't have the heart to turn down such interesting new subjects. And before you come barging in here, this is a very delicate process and if you interrupt me, they're going to be severely damaged. Now go away._" He said, and the speaker crackled out.

We all stared at it for long moments, and I licked my lips nervously. _Was this what you were working on Kage? And why do you need Stein for it?_ I thought to myself, then sighed. "Well c'mon guys, there's nothing we can do." I said in disappointment, and Liz quickly beat a retreat with Patty as I followed dejected in their wake. Maka, Soul, Blackstar, and Tsubaki all trailed behind, casting nervous glances at Stein's towering lab as we made our way back to Death City.

_Kage's POV:_

I sat up, my hands automatically going to my wrists where I felt shallow scars, in the shape of grey Xs just beneath my palms. I looked at them silently, rolling my shoulders a little as I tilted my head, cracking my aching neck. "The operation was a complete success. What do you want me to do with the excess?" Stein asked from nearby, and I looked over my shoulder to see him washing his grimy hands in a sink. "Dunno. I guess we'll take it for now." I said absently, and he nodded, drying his hands on a paper towel. "How'd the operation on my brother go?" He paused as I asked that, and then shrugged. "As good as could be said for such a delicate and unstable subject, not to mention the nature of the operation. He's fine." He reassured me, and I nodded, sliding on my jacket. He watched me as I followed him to the recovering room, and I sucked in a breath as I saw the bed.

He looked so frail and broken now. But I knew he was stronger than ever, and I smiled as he opened his eyes and looked at me. "Did it work?" I nodded. "Did they _both_ work?" Another nod. He sighed in relief and fell back onto the pillows, his eyes closed. I sat down beside him, staring at the identical X shaped scars on his own wrists as he did the same. "These won't heal, will they?" He asked slowly, and I frowned and shrugged. "They might. They might not. Stein might know." I admitted, and he nodded. "Hello? Guys?" We both started at the meek voice, turning to face it.

_Mystery POV:_

I slowly opened my eyes, then squinted. It was bright. Somehow, that comforted me. There had always been brightness. I liked the dark better, but even then there had been light, red and orange and grey and green. I opened them again, sitting up. Everything was suddenly wrong again. I couldn't think. My chest was constricting. I opened my mouth…and everything felt good again. I hesitantly sucked in, then let it out. Yes, this was good. But why did I have to do it? _I remember having to do this…a very long time ago…is it…breathing?_ I thought, trying it again and smiling as the pain in my head dissapeared and I didn't hurt in my chest. I looked down, examining myself. I was wearing black clothing, a faded T-shirt and probably sweat pants, covered by a white sheet. My hands were in my lap, and I lifted one, studying it.

My fingers were long and slender and very pale, and I flexed them and wiggled them, curious. I turned my hand over, seeing my nails were shiny, long, and darkest black. I brushed them across my cheek, curious, and felt a slight pressure that warned me they were sharp. I ran my tongue over my teeth, feeling that they also were slightly pointed, all of them, not just my canines. I ran my fingers through my hair, feeling it short, ruffled, and a little fine. I curiously yanked on it, trying to see what color it was, and grinned as I saw my bangs were black too._ Cool._ I looked around, and blinked as I saw the pair on the bed close to me. I opened my mouth, trying to remember how to make sound. No luck.

I frowned in annoyance, then closed my eyes and thought on it. "Hello? Guys?" I tried, and grinned when it came out right, although far too quite and meek. They both jumped and turned around, and I beamed at them happily, giving them both a thumbs up. They stared at me for long moments, and I started to whistle to pass the time. "Guess it worked." Kage finally managed in a whisper, and I laughed, enjoying the sound of my own voice as I swung my legs around to rest my feet on the floor. "Yeah, I guess it did." I said cheerfully, stretching and then cracking my back as I looked at them both. Akuma finally broke the awkward silence, shifting nervously and clearing his throat.

"So, how do you feel…DK?"

_**Gasp! What madness is this? I'm not gonna tell you… *chants in singsong voice and dances around IPad* Yes, I am actually writing this from my school IPad at school, in math class. (I'm very sneaky, that's how I manage. Also we had a test.) I uploaded the couple paragraphs I had on Microsoft to my account and then opened my account on Google and therefore I now have complete access to my stuff. (I have the mobile version on my IPod) Yeah…Halloween was awesome. I had to take my sister out because mom and dad were too lazy and because I wanted to and we went with the neighborhood group. It was fun, we got home and started trading candy, I got my typical tiny little pile of nothing (if you don't like chocolate, which I don't, then your Halloween bag shrinks a very great deal) Oh, and it was Mack's birthday. Yes, the Mack from May and Jay. He was born on October the 31st, although what year is shrouded in mystery…bah, no matter. I know I said I was gonna wait until I finished with the BB, but I had so much inspiration for this I couldn't help but write just a teeny little bit. A couple chapters. Three or four. Or five. Or six. Or seven. *rubs back of head sheepishly* Hehe, just the few. Anyway, Review, Request, Rcomment, Auf Wedersien!**_


	4. Working Out The Kinks

_**Hey guys, you know YOU can review too, it doesn't have to be just Emma-sempai. And don't worry; he won't come after you because of things I shall now explain below, which are rather obvious. Better get to explaining then, and sorry I was late with this, a friend of mine (if you've been reading it, the Flora story's true author) was talking to me about her story and my guest-appearance in it, some things she wanted to ask me if they were okay or not, and some dialogue she wanted to get down, stuff like that.**_

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___There are some things you can never get back, no matter how much effort you put in. And there are some feelings of despair that you can never ever shake off.  
_

___-Ciel Phantomehive_

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_Kage's POV:  
_ I stared at DK, Akuma doing the same. He stared back at us, obviously nonplussed. His hair was short and inky black, sticking up in ragged tufts from his head, and his skin was deathly pale, almost pure white. His nails were longer, and they were a shiny black that looked like nail polish, but when I squinted I couldn't see the difference between a normal nail and the "polish". Many faint, ghost-like scars were branded over his bare arms, and a thin, nearly invisible one went down from his forehead to his chin, diagonal across his cheek. He was skinny, almost anemic, and his black T-shirt was draped over his frame in a way that emphasized it. His nose was bony and short, and his cheekbones were high over colorless lips. His eyes were the ever-familiar red-black, but I saw a faint black X in the center of his red iris. "What? I'm fine. Aren't I?" he asked nervously, his voice slightly different from Akuma's. It was deeper, but also younger for some strange reason.

"Yeah…it's just weird seeing you on your…own." I said after a moment, making a helpless gesture with my hands as he nodded absently. "Yeah. Feels strange too. I haven't had my own body for…nine hundred years? Give or take a decade…" he mumbled, looking down at himself as if fascinated by his body, lifting his arms and turning them over several times. "I think it's cool." Akuma said staunchly, and I nodded, swinging my legs over the side of the bed and stretching as the shadows fetched my coat for me. Akuma did the same, and we watched as DK looked up at us, ten licked his lips with a faint pink tinge in his cheeks. "Uh…I kinda forgot how…" he mumbled, the rest trailing off in a mutter as we leaned closer curiously. He sucked in a deep breath and suddenly shoved us away, grabbing the metal railings of the bed and heaving himself, standing on the grimy concrete floor of the lab with shaky legs.

"You wh-" I started to asked, but before I could finish my query his knees buckled, and only his grip on the bed kept him from faceplanting on the ground as his legs folded on the ground, limp. "Oh." Akuma said numbly as I nodded silently, DK glaring at both of us. "It's been _nine hundred years_ since I had my own body. I've completely forgotten how to use one." he snapped, his cheeks definitely pink now as I sighed in annoyance, running a hand through my hair as Akuma hoisted the demon's arm over his shoulder and helped him to stand, watching as his knees buckled and his grip around my brother's neck tightened, eyes shut tight in annoyed fear as my brother managed to dislodge him and shove him on the bed. "But you controlled Akuma's body a couple times-" I tried, and DK snorted, hands in his lap as he glared at his legs. "I used his _mind_ to make him move. His brain sent all the signals to his body, I just triggered them off." He explained sourly, and I sighed again in frustration.

We scowled at each other in silence for a second, and I bit my lip. "We need to get you out of Stein's lab first of all. Can you transform?" His cheeks reddened further, and my heart sunk. "No. I'm a meister, not a weapon. Technically I'm just a Kishin." He spat, and I blinked in unison with Akuma. "But-" we started to say at the same time, and DK held up a hand, cutting us off. "Yeah, I transformed with Akuma, but then I was just a mental projection, the sword forms weren't mine, I was just in them. Get it?" he muttered, and we both growled in annoyance as he stared at his legs some more, a decidedly ugly twist in his mouth. "I liked being in his body more…" he grumbled, giving Akuma a disgusted glance and then sighing and looking back down at himself. "Well, I had one once, it shouldn't be too hard to get this one moving too." He said absently, shoving himself off the bed again and standing, his legs wobbly but firm as he gave us a triumphant grin.

"Good. Now try to walk."

His smile vanished.

_DK's POV:_

I forced myself to move, feeling oddly disjointed and strange, managing to stumble my way to a wall and lean against it, panting slightly as I gripped it with one long-nailed hand. _Damn…I'm as helpless as a newborn lamb in a body of my own, not to mention just as coordinated. And now I can feel pain, exhaustion, and I can't shove it off to someone else because there's just me._ I thought, feeling extremely lonely, cut off, and abandoned for a split second before both Kage and Akuma tapped my shoulder, making me glance up at them as they peered at me, concerned. I felt another flash of disjointedness. No one had cared for me, ever. In any way. Queenie had been more protective of me because she saw me as her one true ally, not as her brother. It was like watching a scene from behind glass, knowing what was going on but not connected to it in any way, shape, or form. "You okay?"

I swallowed, licking my lips before managing to reply. "Yeah…it's just a bit much." They both nodded in understanding and backed off as I straightened again, pulling myself to the bathroom where Stein had a mirror, staring at it with my hands on either side of the reflective glass, studying my new body. It…it was eerily close to the original, my human self. I reached up, touching the side of my face and watching as the specter in the mirror followed the movement, its eyes dull, blank. I suddenly felt like that wasn't me. Gekido didn't have black hair or unnaturally pale skin or those demonic eyes and fiendish nails. Gekido didn't have the faint grey soul I saw in my own chest, pulsing gently in time to my heartbeat. "DK?" I jumped, my nails accidentally nicking my cheek as I looked at the source of the sound, mind blank. Who? That wasn't my name. I was… "DK, you okay man?"

I sucked in a shuddering breath, closing my eyes for a moment as I felt something sticky and cool trickle down my cheek, wiping it away with my thumb and blinking as I saw the dark smear. "Yeah. I'm fine." I whispered hoarsely, clenching my other hand as the black nails cut into my pale skin, leaving angry little crescent marks, staring at the ground in front of me. I was…I was the Demon King. Not Gekido. Not anymore. I smirked a little, lifting my gaze to see Kage and her brother in the doorway, looking worried. A strange surge of power pulsed through me, and my smile widened, showing them my sharper, more jagged teeth than their blunt human ones.

"I'm just fine."

_Hazel's POV:_

I gasped, freeing myself at last as I wrenched open the door, feeling my heart pounding in my chest as I transformed my arm again with a hiss of effort. I ran to the cell block, seeing all my friends there and many more that I didn't know, quickly stopping in front of the mass cage. It was dirty, the product of dozens of teens and children forced to endure and wait in the cold, grimy dark for weeks, months on end. Waiting for escape. Waiting for hope. Waiting for experimentation. "Everybody back. I'm gonna break the door down." I said shakily, and their dull eyes flickered into brightness, all of them quickly edging away, far away from the metal door as I aimed my arm at it, slightly unsure of what to do. I blinked in wonder, feeling my fingers in the metal, and squeezed them like I was wrapping my hand around a stick. A huge boom sent my flying as the door was bust open, my back slamming into concrete as I panted and it transformed back against my will, my eyes aching and head pounding as children began streaming past me, Birch and Linden quickly grabbing my arms and hoisting me up as Rowan and Berry ran past me, both heading for the exit.

I struggled free of them once my head stabilized, summoning up the weapon form in my arm as we ran and getting ready to use it, on the front doors. "CLEAR!" I shouted once we came into the gigantic entrance hall, swinging my arm up and bracing my feet before squeezing my fingers, a huge blast of heat and light booming as the doors shattered into flak and debris, the others running out as I quickly followed, stopping a moment to aim it at the many vehicles and helicopters in the hanger and firing twice, once on each side to blow up the transports before following the others, panting with fear as I caught up to my friends and we ran as one into the forest, the branches and scrub clawing at our faces and limbs, hooking into our tattered lab outfits and tearing bits away to traitorously bear them to our trackers, who would no doubt be following very, very soon.

_**Dun dun dadum…*organ playing* Nice chapter for you all I'm sure, aren't you happy with me. *weary grin* Sorry, it took me a while to hammer this out. Just kidding, it actually only took me about a standard high school class period to think up roughly the last two and next five, I'm just that inspired for this. *shrugs* Now if you don't mind, I'm going to get moving and start writing the next chapter, if you please. Review, Request, Rcomment, Auf Wedersien.**_


	5. Helping Hand

_**Next chapter, bla bla bla. DK has communicated from the great beyond and put in a request to not be so weak and be more "badass" (his words not mine), so I guess I have to get on that. *grin* EVENTUALLY…after all, he didn't specify a time. Oh, and I am no longer doing the AMV chapter thing, so sorry about that if you liked it, but eventually I was gonna run out of songs. On we go.**_

_**(if anyone's wondering why I'm describing DK so much, it's because I'm trying to get a grip on my characters and have them be more than loose blots in my mind. I'll do it with the others too.)**_

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_Water: 35 l. Carbon: 20 kg. Ammonia: 4 l. Lime: 1.5 kg. Phosphorus: 800 g. Salt: 250 g. Saltpeter: 100 g. Sulfur: 80 g. Fluorine 7.5 g. Iron 5 g. Silicon 3 g. and trace amounts of 15 other elements. All the ingredients of the average adult human body, down to the last speck of protein in your eyelashes. And all those ingredients can be bought on a child's allowance. Humans are built on the cheap. _

_-FMA_

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_Kage's POV:_

I gave Salem a quick snuggle before standing up, a bottle of bleach in hand as I started to thoroughly clean our apartment, making sure to erase any fingerprints, pick up any strands of hair, and generally wipe it clean of any sign of our existence as DK paced slowly around the table, still getting the hang of "walking" as his grumbles constantly echoed in the air. Akuma was watching the street, eyes narrowed as he watched and announced each and every person that entered the building. I finished, hoisting my backpack over my shoulders as Akuma did the same, letting Salem hop onto my shoulder and purr as we checked out, going to a different apartment block. It had been a few hours since Stein had done the experiment, and we had been laying low so as not to attract the attention of our friends, which might have been a little awkward.

I knew we couldn't avoid telling them forever, but it was best to recover a little before confronting them, and besides, now that DK had his own body we would need a larger apartment, including the fact we were going to have another presence there, namely his weapon partner, whoever it would be. We had since determined that while Akuma and DK could resonate, they both found it slightly awkward –I didn't blame them– to be wielded and wielding someone who they used to share a body with. _Déjà vu_ or whatever. And the power of wielding shadows, that while DK was proficient at, he needed a more permanent and material weapon that his shadow, which could be rendered useless in certain scenarios.

But alas, such was not to be. When we got to the larger one we had rented, Kid, Blackstar, Liz, Patty, Maka, Soul, Tsubaki, all of them were standing with their arms folded crossly in front of the door, making us sigh and look at each other. "I'll just be going now…" DK muttered, fading into shadow and vanishing as we both shrugged and heaved a sigh, approaching our obviously P. friends as they blinked, Maka and Kid sensing our souls, Blackstar hearing our footsteps and recognizing them as they all vainly searched for visual conformation, easily provided since we were in the typical all black. We stopped in front of them, posed identically with our hands in our pockets and me with Salem perched on my shoulder, gazing levelly on our friends as they simply stared back, an awkward silence hanging around us.

_Kid's POV:_

Kage and Akuma stopped in front of us, their eyes neutral and unreadable, and I caught a hint of defiant pride burning in Kage's eyes as I swallowed hard. "So what did you guys go to Stein for?" Blackstar asked after a long moment, being the typical one to break the silence as Kage and her brother flinched imperceptibly, looking down. "It isn't anything for you guys to worry about, we're fine." She said after a moment, and Akuma nodded. "Yeah, it's all cool." he mumbled, and I sighed, running my hands through my hair as Patty giggled. "And we were worried about you guys for nothing!" she chirped happily as Liz rolled her eyes, beaming to herself and starting to scribble a crayon giraffe on the concrete dormitory as the rest of us sweatdropped.

"You know, we're not technically on your side despite the current events, we're still Nightstalker at heart and that means being partially Kishin. The things we do won't always be to your sole advantage nor what you would necessarily approve of." Kage said suddenly, folding her arms as she stared at us defiantly, and I narrowed my eyes in concern. "What are you saying?" She looked away with a sigh, rubbing her upper arm. "Of course you have every right to be angry at us. We tried a secret operation that endangered our lives and did something to us you all will most certainly disapprove of and we did it behind your backs, without telling you and giving you no chance to stop us. I would say I'm sorry, but I'm not. I don't regret the decision." She said quietly, and by now we were all on fire with impatience and a need to ask her just what exactly was she was talking about. She gave us all a long look, and it made my heart pound. It was like she was saying goodbye to us with that glance, her eyes shadowed with a faint hurt and longing. She inhaled through her nose, then swept her hair back and looked at us evenly.

"Our blood is black. Stein changed it to the same type Crona has."

My eyes widened as the others gasped, and we all stared at them in horror as Kage folded her arms defiantly, not meeting our eyes as Akuma nodded silently, partially taking off his jacket to show us the thin, grey scars on his wrist that were shaped in a long X. "You…you…" I was speechless, and she nodded, Salem nudging up to purr and nuzzle her chin as Kage mechanically petted her. Maka suddenly stepped forward, grabbing Kage by the arms and shaking her. "WHY?! THE BLACK BLOOD ISN'T SAFE, YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE MADNESS IT BRINGS LIKE CRONA AND SOUL CAN, YOU KNOW THAT KAGE! IT ISN'T SAFE FOR YOU!" she cried, and Kage gently pushed her away, but her strength was like iron. "Normal Black Blood isn't, I agree. But it is a manufactured substance, and without Ragnarok or another conscious presence to activate it the madness is sound, and besides, the stuff we made with Stein is designed to not activate Madness and enhance the genes we already have. I suppose you could say its tailored specifically to fit our blood and body and soul type, and technically not even the same substance Soul and Crona have." She said staunchly, and Maka blinked at her as Soul's eyes widened.

"And there's something else we did with it." Akuma interrupted, and we all looked at him as he smiled slightly. "Crona and Ragnarok are separate beings, but they exist in the same symbiotic relationship myself and DK had." A faint tingle of warning ran up my spine as I heard "had". Kage blinked, starting to smile as well, as if she had forgotten something. "Yeah. So we altered the specific DNA strand within the Black Blood that was designed to keep Ragnarok separate from Crona and allow him to manifest physically, and we had…" She trailed off as they both looked to the street, and we all blinked as a rift of shadow appeared, a black boot stepping out as the body followed, a familiar scythe like grin flashing against pale cheeks as DK freed himself from the shadows, wearing a similar outfit to Kage and Akuma, but without a jacket and jeans, wearing instead a more loose T-shirt and trousers as his black hair stuck out crazily around his head, his eyes a challenging red-black.

I blinked, seeing a faint, glowing grey soul in his chest, with the strange smile on it, and his snaggly haircut. "Hey, good to see ya guys." He said cheerily, smirking at us as Liz finally found the breath to speak, numbly pointing to him as she stuttered out "A-alive!" He shrugged silently, smugly, his grin still in place. "Yeah, cool isn't it?" he snickered, and we all blinked and shook our heads. "Anyway, that's all really. We're gonna move into the new apartment and then head out to look for someone to be DK's new weapon partner. Good with you guys?" Kage asked, giving us a thumbs up, and I nodded slowly as she beamed and walked past us, DK following with Akuma in tow as he mock saluted us and entered the building, leaving us on the front step, utterly confused.

_Kage's POV:_

I leaned back with a sigh, the tree warm and comforting under my back as DK yawned, absently holding his finger above the clear water, water running from it to steadily plunk on the surface of the stream as Akuma lay on his stomach, chin on his arms, his eyes lazy as he watched it chatter and burble its way past us. I flicked my pole out of the water, grinning as I saw the salmon jerking and dancing on the end of the line as both male's eyes gravitated towards it, dangerous hunger showing in their sleepy gazes. I neatly snagged the fish with my shadows, dropping it in the bucket as it recovered and began to swim in agitated circles, pink shining at me from its sides as I sighed and baited my hook again, dropping it into the water with the line lying just barely across my fingers, waiting for the gentle tug.

The atmosphere was lazy, content, the warm afternoon sun shining down on us through the trees as I yawned again, feeling drowsy and content. We had been camping in the area of northern France for the past few weeks, knowing it was as good a place as any to start our search, and so far had turned up…nothing. Not even one nibble. Speaking of…I quickly whipped the pole out of the water, grinning as I saw my second fish of the day jerking and dancing on the pole, a slightly smaller salmon that both my brother and DK eyed hungrily before I dropped it in the bucket. We all had a craving for fish right now, and it had been a while since I had gone fishing. I was still as good at it as ever, and nothing, _nothing_ tasted better than fish cooked by Akuma. No lie. It was unnatural how he seemed to know exactly how to cook and clean a fish to make it the most delicious bit of meat ever to grace a pie plate.

Of course being us, this peace didn't last more than a few seconds before-

"SOMEONE HELP ME!" I looked up from my fishing pole as DK and Akuma sat up, and we all let out a long sigh as DK muttered a curse and lay back down. I grumbled as I got to my feet, tucking the fishing pole into a crack in the tree as Akuma raised an eyebrow. "You gonna go after whoever that is?" he grumbled, and I shrugged as DK growled and stood, brushing himself off clumsily. We started walking calmly through the woods, heading towards the sound of screams and blows as shadows curled up around my feet, eager and waiting for a fight.

_Hazel's POV:_

I couldn't stop running, my mind was in overdrive and the only thought in my head was **FLEE**. Branches whipped and cracked, snapping across my face as I whimpered and closed my eyes, covering my head with my hands and running faster, stumbling over roots as my clothes snagged and tore in the woody stems. Suddenly I hit something both soft and hard, pushing it back to the ground with an "oof!" of surprise as my eyes snapped open and I uncrossed my arms. A boy roughly my own age was sprawled under me, his eyes shut in annoyance as he sat up, rubbing his eyes with one hand –I saw his nails were long and black– before opening them and glaring at me.

His eyes were a terrifying red, with black surrounding the crimson iris and a faint X marked in the very center of the red, his inky black hair standing up in all directions as I numbly stared at him, in shock. A spiderweb-thin grey scar went from his forehead to his chin, tracing a diagonal path across his right cheek as he glared back at me, annoyance clear in his horrific eyes. His clothes were pitch black and very loose, like he had thrown them on in a hurry and hadn't bothered to change. He then sighed loudly, letting his head fall back on the ground. "Well, I found the problem and she _will not_ get off me." He grumbled in a deep yet young voice, and I blushed and quickly scooted off him as he sat up, two other people coming out of the forest behind him.

They were both blonde, and I could tell instantly they were twins. They had the same basic build, coloring, and facial structure, with the only difference being the female had longer hair, and obviously a curving chest. Their eyes were a bright, harsh green, like snapping fireworks, and their hair was a tawny caramel, slightly curly and thick. They wore black too, black jeans with identical black jackets and a black t-shirt under it, boots leather and, as seemingly a pro quo with these people, black. "Nice DK, you get run over by a girl and then have to call for help. I'm in awe with the new form." The girl said sarcastically, bending down as "DK" grabbed her elbow and hoisted himself up, busily dusting off his baggy clothing as I simply stared numbly. "Oh shut up…" he muttered, sending a scowl and a glare in my direction before sighing and looking up at the faint sunlight streaming through the treetops.

"Hey, it's a Weapon. Well, Lord Death'll be pissed as hell if we don't step in…" the other boy said wearily, pointing to me and then sighing as his sister and their friend both sighed and nodded, and my heart jumped. "You guys are from DWMA! That's great, we really need your help, they've been kidnapping people from all over and-" I was cut off by all three's merry laughter, feeling hurt and starting to get angry. "It's true! Why don't you believe me?!" I asked desperately, flinging my arms out towards them as the female blinked and her accomplices smirked. "It's not that kid; it's that you think we're from DWMA." DK finally said with a snort, putting both hands on his hips as he sneered at me. Red began to cloud my vision, and I clenched my fists. "Then who are you?!" I snapped, and they all shrugged as one. "I think we can have a nice, safe introduction by saying we are freelancers, and ones that have loose ties with DWMA. Name's Kage, the blonde's my brother Akuma and this genius is DK." The female said, putting her arms behind her head and yawning insolently as she lazily pointed to both her companions.

I blinked, anger being replaced by desperate hope. "Right, then you can help us! I can pay you to help us!" I said eagerly, and Kage raised an eyebrow. "Oh? How much money do you have?" she asked in amusement, and my heart sunk a little. "I don't have any but I can always repay you later-" She cut me off with a raised hand, smirking a little. "We take payment on the spot kiddo, not loans. Get lost." She said smugly, and I took a desperate step forward. "I can work for you or something! My friends too, we have talents, I'm sure we could help you out with something-" I tried pleadingly, and she shook her head, starting to turn away. "We don't need manpower right now, so I think we're done here." She said cheerily, the boys following her as rage replaced my desperation, fueled by it and charged with hope. "DON'T YOU DARE TURN YOUR BACK ON ME!" I snarled, transforming my arm to take aim at her stupid back as she turned again, her eyes widening slightly as she saw the long barrel of my arm.

Suddenly I was restrained, cold, slimy darkness forcing my arm up and head back, feet leaving the ground as something thin and strong coiled around my legs, binding them together and rendering me helpless as my free arm was crushed to my chest, wiggling frantically as I heard mocking laughter from in front of me. It stopped slowly, and I was lowered as Kage's face came into my line of vision. "You got spunk kid. What kind of weapon are you?" she asked, eyes raking over the still un-transformed arm as I shrugged as much as whatever was holding me allowed. "Don't know-" I managed to choke out, and she frowned thinly. "DK?" she asked, looking up as I felt another presence, and something sharp and long gently scratched down my metal arm. "Cannon of some kind definitely. Looks like a…a panzerfaust." he said, and I caught the strange note of excitement in his voice as Kage smirked. "What a coincidence. Hey girl, what's your name?"

"Hazel…" I managed to whisper, and I felt my bonds slowly start to relax. "That's a nice name. Now Hazel, remember how you said you were gonna help us if we saved you and those other people? We're gonna do that." She said soothingly, and I swallowed hard as I made contact with the forest floor again, transforming my arm back nervously as Kage and the others stared at me, excitement glittering in their green and demonic eyes. "Now, tell me exactly what's going on and what you need the army-type people to do." She said, kneeling as I managed to sit up, gasping and hacking and feeling a slight sense of hope, deep within my gut.

_**Dun dun dunnn… you know, I'm so busy right now I just wanna get on with the next chapter, so Review Re quest Rcomment Auf Wedersien!**_


	6. Bad, bad Idea

_**Next! Okay, for future reference and for personal reasons, I'm gonna be putting a time stamp on all the next chapters, like you will see below. Mkay then? Good. On we go on your mad little journey to the depths of what some might call my "sane" mind. (I forgot the "in" ;3)**_

_**November 4, 2013**_

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_If the ways of this world are based on equivalent exchange, as alchemy says, then in order to allow for a new generation to enjoy good fortune, then the price that we must pay is to carry the bodies of the dead across a river of blood._

_-FMA_

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_Kage's POV:_

I walked through the forest, utterly alone as I hummed softly to myself, glee making my stride bouncy and cheerful. I couldn't believe it. All that opportunity just dropped into our laps, a real solid lead in this endless hunt for new members. _But first… _I grinned as I came to a clearing, seeing people with bulky lab coats subduing children with ragged clothing and uniforms, most crying for help and struggling. I swiftly netted all the adults with one hand, shadows sweeping around them and curling up off the ground as they cried out in shock and began to struggle, ignored by me as I made my way to the children. "Does anybody here know a young female by the name of Hazel?" I asked, and most raised their hands, including one bunch that were starting to give me dubious looks, obviously close friends. "Well, c'mon then." I said cheerfully, leading the way into the forest as they all looked at each other and followed, the lab coats being powered above the trees and dragged in our wake.

We came back to the stream as Akuma and DK packed up our stuff, the girl nervously fidgeting on a log. "Got 'em." I said brightly, breaking the silence as she looked up in shock, seeing the ragged bunch behind me and starting forward. "Rowan! Berry! Linden! Birch! Guys, how did you- what did she… GUYS!" she squealed, obviously at a loss for words as her friends all sighed in relief and moved to reacquaint themselves, one, a tall, thin male with dead-white hair and blindfolded eyes being tugged by a tiny, blue-haired girl that must have been only eight or nine as his head followed us, seemingly staring in horror. "Guys…these are demons." He finally croaked, and all chatter stopped as I grinned wickedly, DK slouching off the log and going to back me up as Akuma chuckled and walked to my side. "Well, I guess we're busted. Shame on the bad people." I said as the males behind me both laughed, and we grinned at the trembling teens._ It's so much fun to scare people like this sometimes…_ I thought gleefully, and then shrugged. "But we're also demons that have stable souls, so you don't have to worry about being munched in the dead of night. In fact, DK's the only _true_ demon here." I said, pointing to him as he gave a lazy salute.

"But you have meister and weapon…and witch…and Kishin…and something else…what are you?!" the boy whimpered as I snapped my fingers, the struggling lab coats drifting down from the trees to clump together by our log. "We…are Nightstalker. Ring any bells?" I said briskly, and several kids whitened. "Guess it does. Don't worry, we're mostly on a tame leash with Lord Death and DWMA and all them." I said dismissively, waving a hand at them. "W-what do you want with us?" Hazel stammered, and I tapped my lips with one finger. "Well, we seem to have a mutual problem. You want to get away from the nasty people here, and we need a lot of people with nowhere to go. I propose we solve it by taking you guys home with us, and see if you like it there. Choose fast, or slow, doesn't matter to me. If you cannot _stand_ the thought of living with us, we'll pop you over to the DWMA and call it square." I said, and they all looked at each other.

"Well?" I asked expectantly, and Hazel stepped forward. "We'll…we'll go with you." She stammered, obviously bracing herself, and I grinned and nodded as DK and Akuma high-fived. "Great! Now if you excuse us, we need to find out exactly how to deal with these creeps." I said cheerfully, and as one DK, Akuma, and I all turned to the struggling scientists. "Right buddies, we can make you suffer everything you fear and more in about five seconds, so I suggest you make yourselves useful. Spill every last bean and I'll shove you on your way." I snapped belligerently, tossing my shoulders back as the shadows around each person's neck squeezed harshly, almost to the point of strangulation as the men and women in them thrashed and panicked, before relaxing and allowing them to babble.

And babble they did.

Right away I eliminated about half in terms of being useful, just because somehow (maybe I had done the intimidation act a wee bit too well) they had snapped under the pressure and were chattering like idiots. The rest were all either stony silent or sweating nervously, and DK nodded to me as Akuma licked his lips. It was obvious who was higher up on the pecking order, and I lowered the six or seven we had deemed to be important to the ground, quickly wrapping them several times in shadow as we gazed hungrily at the rest. "Oy-" I said out of the side of my mouth, not turning around. "Who in your ragged little bunch are Weapons? Come forward if you are."

Hazel and the littler blue-haired girl I had noticed earlier came forward with some others, and we smirked at them. "Kage, would you? I'm hungry." Akuma muttered, and I rolled my eyes, snapping my fingers as the shadows suddenly sharpened, decapitating the useless lab coats in identical showers of blood that vanished midair as they expanded, ribbons of darkness flying out from their bodies and wrapping around dozens of floating red orbs. "_Bon appetite. _Don't worry, we're not demonizing you, these are all Kishin souls and therefore safe for you guys to eat." I said cheerfully, and we quickly divided the Kishin Souls up, handing about three to each kid and saving several for our own snacks. Well, DK and me. Akuma seemed to have lost his taste for souls as simply a food after the blood transfusion, although he still enjoyed the occasional soul for kicks.

_Hazel's POV:_

I looked uncertainly at the five glowing orbs in my arms, feeling my gorge rise. I was expected to _eat_ these? I looked up nervously as the others did the same, seeing Kage and DK swallowing down soul after soul with pleased, sated grins on their faces, Akuma watching us with a raised eyebrow. "You're weapons aren't you? Eat, it's good for you. Becoming Death Scythes and all that." He said dismissively, and I swallowed hard, closing my eyes and then sighing as I raised a pulsing red orb to my mouth, scrunching up my face and swallowing it down in one quick gulp, shudders racking themselves up and down my spine. Then I blinked, opening my eyes. "Hey…it's not that bad." I said in surprise, glancing down at the remaining four souls. "Really? Whats it like?" Berry asked curiously, tilting her head with her cobalt locks brushing across her violet eyes, and I shrugged, licking my lips. "It's like…it's like eating a big gummy snack or something. No taste at all." I said, and the others shrugged and began cautiously eating the souls as I quickly closed my eyes and swallowed my own, feeling a strange, tingly sensation travel up through the soles of my feet, enveloping my entire body and going up, like I was being crawled on by thousands of ants.

My eyes snapped open as I realized sound had been cut off, and cried out in shock to feel myself completely locked in shadows, kicking and thrashing and trying to summon my cannon as I felt a sharp pinch on my ear, making me stop with an indignant squeak of pain. "_Just relax kid, Kage hasn't dropped someone out mid-shadow walk yet, and me n' Akuma are helping her. You've got it made in the shade. Actually, that's literal…_" DK's voice chuckled in my ear, and I flinched away as his breath washed against the side of my face, icy cold and dead. Suddenly the dark was gone, and I blinked, looking around to find it night, shivering as a cold, moaning wind rustled through the lank grass around us, making the grey-brown plants waver and dance like a wave at sea as Kage and her brother stretched, the rest of us fetching up right beside me with faint pops, the shadows simply tearing open and closed in midair as my friends stumbled through.

DK was right next to me, and I gave him a nasty look before pointedly rubbing my neck, making his eyes dance with wicked mirth as he smirked and looked away, his red-black eyes shining with excitement. I suddenly realized where I was, and there were soft murmurs as the others pressed in close, a slight sense of unease tingeing the evening air. Kage and her brother didn't notice, staring up at the towering mass of shadowy, ominous buildings and lopsided pumpkins, a crooked fence weaving around the city before seemingly connecting by accident at the gates, which were mounted by a towering icon, a scarecrow-like creature with a huge pumpkin head that seemed even from here to have jagged, wet teeth. We were in a grassy meadow, a small dirt path winding through the tattered, dead greenery to connect to the gate, the other end vanishing inside a forest that gave me shivers, all the trees bare-branched, dead, no leaves except for the ones that swirled ominously, like in some horror movie, at the behest of that same icy, endless wind.

"Stake me to a post, it's great to be back home." Kage commented, stretching with a wide yawn as Akuma nodded, grinning slightly as they turned back to us. "Well? What do you think of Halloween Town?" DK asked mischievously, and we all shuffled a little closer to each other, scuffling our feet in the dirt and not answering as all three of our rescuers –although somehow that was seeming more and more like a misnomer– burst into laughter. "Yup! Every time, they're terrified!" Kage said with a wild laugh, tilting her head back to stare at the moon, her green eyes lit with a strange, haunting light for the barest second before she turned to us. "Well, I'm leaving you in DK's capable hands. Akuma, go tell Lord Death we found some meisters and are keeping 'em until further notice. I'll go tell Lock we have guests." She said briskly, and her brother nodded, seemingly waiting for something. She grinned, pressing her hands together and closing her eyes.

"Shadow take shadow steal, shadow make shadow real. Shadow take shadow steal, shadow make shadow real. Shade Wings!" she called out, the shadows whipping around her like leaves in the wind before suddenly arching from her back, doing the same with her brother as they both launched themselves off into the night with gleeful calls. DK watched them flit off into the night like macabre bats, shaking his head slowly with a slight grin on his pale lips. "If it comforts you, she was just showing off. Now she barely needs the incantation to cast the Shade Wings spell, or in fact most of her magical shish-kabob." He said, turning and bowing to us with a flourish in the direction of Halloween Town. That wasn't a comfort at all. "Well, come on this way, we have candy and souls galore, not to mention lots of gore." He said with a wicked chuckle, and we all followed him helplessly toward the gigantic hulking shadow, the moon laughing behind it as I saw the ragged shadow that was Kage swoop downwards and vanish into the inky darkness.

_**Poor Hazel and the others! You would have to admit, for someone who was just the average Joe or Jane on the sidewalk, Halloween Town, not to mention Kage, Akuma, and DK's macabre and morbid sense of humor, would be absolutely terrifying. And so, the beginnings of my crazy little plot are starting to take shape…a very crooked and lame shape, to be sure, but it's still a shape…bah, whatever. I'm gonna be iffy on Mondays, just letting you know, because every other Monday I have to attend FEP (Faith Enrichment Program) at my local church, which basically means I, a sworn pagan, have to sit for roughly three hours and listen to drivel about something I don't believe in. This may be an unfair and hurtful statement for those who actually ARE Catholic/Christian, but let me finish. Would you be crabby if every other Monday you had to sit in a room full of Twilight fangirls and be forced to sit down and shut up FOR THREE HOURS as they babble, and actually put in comments that agree with them? I imagine most of you would. That my friends, is the equivalent of what I go through every other Monday. I hate it because I have some many other things to do, like write Fanfiction, or watch Soul Eater AMVs, or Hellsing AMVs, or Vocaloid, or do my homework, or read a book, or READ Fanfiction, ect. Well, speak of the devil, I gotta GO to this snooze-fest, right now. Review, Request, Rcomment, Auf Wedersien!**_

_**6.10 PM, USA Central Time**_


	7. Post-Traumatic Slap Disorder?

_**Well DK, you need to wait. I must do narrative momentum, and if you come after me with you-know-who, then I won't be able to make you cooler, will I? *logic* Oh hey Samansa-chan147, nice to see you on this fanfic. I finally found a cool title image for the "We be kitties 3" story, it took me forever, so I hope you be checking that out. Well, it's almost my bedtime so I'm gonna get my rear in gear and start typing.**_

_**November 5, 2013**_

* * *

_It's remarkable how weak humans are. They have an innate fear of the dark. And how do they handle this fear? They simply pretend that it doesn't exist. They run away from it. How could anyone say humans aren't weak? It's an inherent trait. How about we take advantage of their weakness? They certainly do make a good natural resource. Right? It's all they're good for._

_-Father_

* * *

_Hazel's POV:_

"Hey, wazzup?" We all jumped as a creature pulled itself _through_ the bricks on our right, smiling pleasantly at DK. He grinned, giving it a thumbs up. "Great, we finally got some new recruits and hopefully Lord Death won't snatch them away, so it's a great head start." He said cheerfully, and the ghost –I think that was what it was– nodded cheerfully and faded away again. DK paused, shooing us all into the collective shadow of a streetlamp as he put on a more serious face. "Okay, listen up. The people here aren't what you're used to, think of it like…like we live in the holiday of Halloween all the time, okay? There's ghosts and ghouls and skeletons and talking plants and a whole mess of other stuff, but there are also a lot of nasty things running abroad that will seriously hurt you, but we don't consider them any more harmful then say…a very pesky fly. Ol' Grinner is one of these." He said, and for once his face was dead serious.

"What's…whats Ol' Grinner?" I asked in a whisper as the others cast furtive looks at the darkness and edged closer. DK didn't smile. "Kishin that we caught a few centuries back. They bound him in the area of the city, but he's allowed to hunt anything with a living heartbeat. That leaves the mostly defenseless citizens, like the ghosts n' talking trees alone, but he's attacked Nightstalker, weapons, witches, anybody and everybody that he can. They see it as a good way to train themselves to never be unaware or think that they're safe. Promising him he can leave if he actually manages to eat someone is also a powerful motivator, so he doesn't hunt when he's hungry; he hunts when he knows there's fresh souls around. And that would be now, so pretty please with being alive on top, stick close and stay sharp." He said, and turned as we pressed in like sardines; the image presented not being a comforting one at all.

Suddenly there was a soft sighing of wind, and DK stopped dead as I bumped into him, quickly stumbling away with a huff of annoyance as he looked over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow. "_**Don't move**_" he mouthed at us, and we blinked at him as he rolled his eyes and ever-so-slightly jerked his head up. We all followed his gaze, and I swallowed hard as I saw the hulking outline perched like a crow on the nearest archway, every feature shrouded in darkness except for the wide, wet mouth with sharp, gleaming teeth. It spanned the creature's mouth from cheek to cheek, and its head was at least twice the size of a normal person, easily three times. As we watched in stupefied horror, a thin trickle of saliva dripped out of its mouth, hitting DK in the forehead. He didn't move, his eyes still unblinking and calm but with a trace of annoyance as he slowly reached up and wiped it away. My body started to tremble, and his eyes sharpened. "DON'T MOVE!" He mouthed at me frantically, and I nodded barely, my legs trembling slightly from the effort it took not to scream.

Suddenly the creature –which I would've bet a plane ride out of here was Ol' Grinner– threw its head back and gave a rattling, gurgling roar as we all screamed and tried to bolt, but terror had frozen us in place. It lowered its head, and the mouth, already stretched wide, stretched wider in what I recognized was an evil and gloating smile. It stretched out its hands to us, and I looked down, swallowing hard as I saw the sharp, tiny mouths at the tip of each finger and the palm of both hands, opening and closing rapidly as I retched deep in my throat and spun away, falling to my knees. That movement triggered the panic for the rest of the others, and they scattered with screams as Ol' Grinner whipped its head up, eyes shining red with excitement and bloodlust. It lowered it again to the prey it had already, and I screamed and managed to scramble to my feet, ducking away from the swipe of its mouthed hand and launching myself down a street, my heart nearly pounding out of my chest in terror.

Suddenly my head snapped back as I hit brick, my body bouncing off the rough surface as my palms were scraped painfully, having been too dumb with terror to notice I had run into an alley, frantically looking around for a weapon of some kind, a door maybe, a fire escape so I could climb up, but there was nothing. I tried to summon my weapon form as Ol' Grinner's silhouette darkened the outline of the alleyway, but I still was too afraid. I was near sobbing as it loomed over me, the terror of the moment suddenly capturing everything in perfect detail, how wet and sharp and gleaming his teeth were, how wide and strong his jaw was, the strong muscles in his arms as he grabbed my shoulder, the tiny mouths _munching_ at my clothing in the most repulsing sensation I had ever felt, feeling them work at the fabric to try and get to the flesh underneath, crying now as his breath washed over my face, fetid and musty.

_I'm going to die here I'm going to die here I'm going to die here I'm going to die here I'm going to die_- The though kept running mindlessly around and around in my head as I involuntarily clawed at his elbows, trying to get him to drop me as the horrific mouth opened wide in a grin. "GET OFF!" I screamed, not caring that it probably wouldn't work, just trying anything to survive this as he stopped for a moment in shock, then laughed, a horrible sound like glass being broken by rusty nails, his hand grabbing the side of my face as I screamed in disgust and tried to wrench those repulsive little mouths off my skin as they scraped at the tender surface.

"Oy, dude, mitts off. That's just _gross_."

Ol' Grinner turned with a snarl, and I was suddenly dropped as the Kishin hissed and scuttled away, DK lowering his arm, with was currently an amphorous mass of shadows. It solidified, and I saw the dark blood staining his inhuman fingernails as he gave an icy smile of satisfaction and walked over to me, squatting and tilting his head as he looked at my face. I suddenly slapped him as hard as I could, and his head turned from the force of the blow as he gave a surprised grunt. He turned it back to face me, a red handprint marked on his cheek that was slowly fading, even as I looked at it. "And what did I do to deserve that?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, and I growled at him as I waved my hand vaguely in the direction of the Kishin. "He almost ate me!" I said, and he nodded sagely. "I noticed that." He said simply, and I blinked at him. "He…the Kishin…it almost ate me." I repeated slowly, feeling a little sheepish for some weird reason, and he nodded absently, looking up and down the alleyway, checking the sky as well. "So he did. Almost eat you, I mean." He agreed, nodding at me wisely as I simply stared at him some more.

"And…and you should've done something about that." I said meekly as I pointed at him, and he raised an eyebrow. "Did I or did I not "do something about that" when I practically gutted him?" he asked pointedly, and I looked away, squirming a little. "Well…yeah…but…uh…but…" I mumbled, staring at my lap as I started to flush with embarrassment. "Don't worry much kid; you had what I call PTSD. S'alright." He said gruffly, ducking my head as I scowled and moved backward, watching as he stood. "Well? Getting up or waiting for Grinner to come back?" he asked impishly, reaching down for me, and I instantly grabbed his pale, black-nailed hand, letting him hoist me to my feet. "What's PTSD?" I asked curiously, and he grinned, showing a hint of his sharper, dangerous teeth that currently reminded me uncomfortably of Ol' Grinner. "Post-Traumatic Slap Disorder. It's when you get so freaked out that afterwards you just gotta hit something, usually me. Kage and Akuma got it a lot when they were younger, although they'll just say it was because I was, and I quote- " He made finger quotes in the air as he said the next sentence "-blindly endangering their lives just because I got a kick out of it". Which while partially true, is still rather insulting."

I stared at him for about a minute, trying to fit that into any kind of sane relationship, and gave up with a sigh as he raised an eyebrow again. "So then, you're Hazel?" I nodded. "You're a cannon weapon." I nodded a little less confidently, this time, and he grinned again. "You're a panzerfaust weapon." I shrugged, and he seemed to take that as a yes. "Well, Hazel-who-may-or-may-not-be-a-panzerfaust weapon, wanna be partners? I just got a body of my very own, and I kinda need a weapon partner or else I'm gonna have to sit on the sidelines every time Kage and her brother get themselves in another big mess." He said invitingly, reaching out for my hand again, and I stared at him for a moment. "You're the most reckless, arrogant, sarcastic, self-centered, and obnoxious prig I've ever seen in my life." I said flatly, and he shrugged. "Yeah. Pretty much." He agreed, and I stared at him for a moment more before looking down at his hand. His nails were still stained with the dark blood from Ol' Grinner, long, and deadly looking, disturbing dark against his bright hand. I looked back up to his face to see him, grinning, waiting. "Sure. Why not?" I said with a grin of my own, grabbing his oddly warm hand and giving it a firm shake as his grin widened and widened, starting to show more of his sharp teeth than was comfortable as his hand tightened suddenly around my own.

"Yeah. Why not?"

_**Yeah…DK now has his weapon! If only she could transform all the way…and what's this new guy, this "Ol' Grinner"? I tell you not, but be warned he shall show up again. Just saying. You have been warned… *hypnotist motion* You have been warned… *drops watch* Aw Fuzzbucket! *frantically crawls around computer for watch, then recovers it and waves it in your faces again* You have been warned… oh whatever. *chucks watch over shoulder* Well, that's all for me, its almost bedtime. Review, Request, Rcomment, Auf Wedersien. **_

_**8.46 PM, USA Central Time**_


	8. Explinations

_***inhales* Well, that was awesome. Just saw Hellsing Abridged 4 and all I can say was…*sigh* Damn though, it was awesome. At first I was kinda annoyed with it 'cause I thought it went too fast, but on my fifth or sixth watching of it, I kinda got into the swing of it and now it's awesome. Oh well…back to running in circles around the neighborhood n' waiting for the next one. On the semi-plus side, it snowed! About an inch, and there's still some left over from this morning. Yes, it snowed already where I live. I'm in Minnesota. We count ourselves lucky it doesn't snow on Halloween. (Has not happened thus far in my area, but I don't wanna jinx myself) Anyway, on we go. Kudos if you get the butterfly reference. (I will say it was from a certain someone playing the Alice Madness Returns game, not mentioning any names. Google it or whatever) Also, sorry about it being late, I had to re-watch Hellsing Abridged # 4…sixty billion times, and the fact that you should all remember I was gonna wait until I FINISHED my BB fanfic to even start on this. Count yourself lucky I just happened to have a flood of inspiration. I shall now quote some of Hellsing Abridged 4's awesomeness to show you why I had to watch it…over and over and over again.**_

_(Alucard to Anderson) "Man, I don't know what I find funnier, the Catholic Church strong-arming you into helping us, or the fact you obviously haven't seen what I did to the statue of Big J!" *referring to the Jesus statue in Rio*_

_(changes to statue, which has large banner saying "420yoloswag4jesus" tied to its arms)_

_(Anderson) "AAAAAHHHHH!"_

_*much later in the episode, when a priest is reporting to Maxwell*_

_(Priest) "The banner won't come down! I think it's a constrictor knot…"_

**(Schrödinger to Seras) "Fraulien… fraulien… fraulien! Hey fraulien!"**

**(Seras) "Oy."**

***grins* "We would make beautiful children."**

***Sears flushes in shock and Alucard shoots him***

**(Alucard) "Was that boy-girl bugging you?"**

_(Anderson to Maxwell.) "Oh I see, so this is a Crusade!"_

_(Maxwell) "No, no no no no, we don't say that anymore. We're calling it…damn, what do the American cows say?"_

_(Anderson) *enthusiastic* "Peace-keeping?" _

_(Maxwell) "Right! Now, shall we keep the peace?"_

**(Walter) "Well, we do have one option. However, it was decommissioned in 1998."**

**(Alucard to Integra/Walter) "The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, an advanced long-range strategic reconnaissance aircraft capable of Mock 3 and an altitude of eighty-five thousand feet!"**

**(Integra) "…You sure do seem to know a lot about it."**

**(Alucard) "DO YOU EVEN READ MY CHRISTMAS LIST!"**

_**Yeah…so I had to watch that a lot before I remembered about Soul Eater. Sorry guys. *sheepish***_

_**November 6-10, 2013**_

* * *

_Now I have become Death; the Destroyer of Worlds._

_-Hindu Bible_

* * *

_Hazel's POV:  
_ DK walked calmly beside me as the others all huddled close, but the sun was rising slowly as the streetlamps sparked out one by one, and we all felt safer at the return of natural, bright daylight as opposed to flickering, pumpkin-headed street lamps. Suddenly the ground opened up in front of us, and I ran into the steel bar of DK's arm as he held it out in front of me, all the breath whooshing out of me as it hit my stomach. "I forgot it did that." He said calmly, and there was a moment of silence as we all gulped and edged away from the rift in the street_. It opened up out of nowhere…it's like the street has a mouth or something._ I thought with a gulp, and DK sighed heavily, hands in his pockets as he idly kicked a stone into the gaping chasm. "Give it a second guys." He murmured, and the street suddenly snapped shut again as we exchanged in bewildered looks. "Don't worry about it guys. Happens all the time." DK said reassuringly, hopping over the cracked line as we all followed, turning around to speak face to face. "A lot of things normally considered inanimate move around and tell the _inanimate_ inanimate objects to take a long walk off a short piieeeerrr-"

Just as he said that, his foot came down square in the middle of a sewer hole, and he plummeted downwards with a hiss of shock as I squeaked and scampered forward a step, then edged back nervously as I heard a muffled splash far below. "Uh…you okay?" I asked nervously as I leaned down, and I heard him growl in annoyance as there were several more splashes, probably him coming to his feet. "I became a butterfly…" He grumbled up at me, and I squeaked again and fell on my rear as he shot up out of the sewer, muck sliding off him instantly as he growled and picked some gunk out from under his long nails, landing on his feet and then kicking the cover, lying several feet away. "And don't think I don't know that wasn't you." He said loudly, and I raised an eyebrow as Rowan twirled a finger around his ear, pointing to the demon as he tapped a foot impatiently.

Suddenly merry laughter rang out, and a dark-haired female, along with a shorter boy and a red-haired male dropped down onto the street, grinning at DK unabashedly. "C'mon dude, you opened yourself up for that one!" the red-haired one said, high-fiving my new meister as he grinned, showing his sharp teeth, and nodded cordially to the other two. "Kage told us we had some visitors, did we _finally_ find someone?" she asked, and I saw a desperate light in her eyes as her two companions both looked hopefully at us, like they were beggars and we had brought crusts of bread for them. "We think so, if they all stay. I even got a new weapon-partner out of it." he said, pointing to me, and the girl beamed and leaped forward to rapidly shake my hand. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you! You have no idea what this means to us!" she squealed as DK coughed pointedly. "Uh, none of us managed to tell them what we want them for, if you please." He muttered, and she let go, backing away and rubbing the back of her neck. "Hehe, sorry."

DK sighed noisily, before gesturing grandly to the trio before us. "Ladies and freaks, this is Lock, Shock, and Barrel." He pointed to the girl, the bleach-blonde male, and the fiery-haired guy in turn as they all waved in a friendly manner. "Whistle and wait." Lock said politely, and Shock gave us a peace sign. "Respond and return." Barrel bowed elegantly, then straightened and smirked. "Cursed meet, cursed part." They all laughed and said in unison "-Dead we meet again." We all just stared at them, and Lock rolled her eyes. "It's a Nightstalker greeting. If you can get _this _instead, wazzup?" she asked, putting both hands on her hips, and we all made an "ah" sound and murmured greetings. "So then, we get them settled in the dorm and after Akuma comes back we can discuss things." Shock said, nonchalantly putting his hands behind his head and yawning. The others all nodded, and DK impatiently made a "come on" motion at us as he started walking away, leading us to a larger building, one that looked almost normal compared to the other unbelievable stuff that had happened to us today.

Of course in this place, normal was a relative thing.

It had a gate like the outside of the city, some rusty iron posts stabbed at random in the ground with more rusty metal connecting them to each other, a jack-o'-lantern on each post with the eye-holes and the mouths spreading a faint yellow glow onto the dark streets, the sun still hovering around the very edges of the horizons and the treeline. The building was tall, made out of crumbling reddish-brown brick, and the doors and windows were all made out of a dark, creaky-looking wood. The doors slammed open as we cleared the gates, and Kage grinned at us from the front steps. "Hey, you made it. No casualties DK?" He shook his head silently. She nodded, moving aside and motioning us inside as we all huddled together and obeyed, trying to attract as little attention to ourselves as possible. However, due to the large amount of people and the small door, someone had to go first, and I was somehow pushed forward, stumbling into a large hall with a grand staircase at the back, several rooms going off (probably down) and a couple tables and armchairs were grouped around some large fireplaces.

The others all smiled slightly as they crowded in, seeing a normal dorm hallway, and I relaxed slightly as Kage made no motion of discouragement, even rolling her eyes at her brothers as Berry and Birch both started exploring the softness of the armchairs, calling loudly for us to try them. I didn't move however, catching some mutters from Kage and her brothers. "We sure about them?" Akuma muttered, and Kage sighed, her snapping green eyes sweeping over the others. "We have to be. Some of them won't stay here, but the ones that will are going to stay because we offer them something the DWMA doesn't." she muttered, and I saw a glint of exhaustion in her eyes before DK spoke up. "We scare them, and I don't blame them for being scared of us, but there's a fine line between healthy intimidation and bullying into a corner, especially with the gap between us and them. You guys were raised here, and I'm a demon. What's normal to us is grotesque and horrifying to them, and teasing for us is like overt threatening for any normal person. Lock and her brothers can ease them into the lifestyle when we're gone." He said slowly, and they all nodded.

"Yo, Hazel! C'mere!" he shouted suddenly, waving me over as I gulped and walked over, hoping they hadn't noticed me listening to them. "We're gonna be heading over to the DWMA, and since I'm technically registered as a meister there, we gotta chalk you in as my weapon, not to mention show you around our apartments." He said in a friendly way, and I nodded silently as Kage coughed. "And I gotta say hi to Kid." She reminded my partner, and Akuma made a gagging sound as DK rolled his eyes. "We could skip that ya know." He said hopefully to her, and she stared at him, a flicker of something dangerous showing in her eyes as he snickered and looked away, back to me. "Anyway, let's go." He said, grabbing me by the arm and starting to drag me away as I squeaked and dug my heels in, to no good. His strength was…demonic. "I can't leave my friends here!" I protested, and he raised an eyebrow at me over his shoulder. "Are you kidding? This is the safest spot in the entire world, at least during the day for newcomers. If they stick close to Lock and her brothers and don't go outdoors after sundown, it'll be like a vacation. And they'll be taken care of, trust me. You guys are very important to us." He said with a slight smile, and I looked away with a little heat rising in my cheeks.

In any other circumstances, that might've sounded reassuring, maybe even a little romantic, but right now it was a little creepy and unsettling, and I looked nervously behind me as I was pulled out of the safe-feeling house and into the dangerously shadowed streets, Kage and Akuma already waiting in the air above us with the ragged, paper-cutout wings stropping the air with soft hisses. "Move it demon-boy, we have places to be." Kage called down, arms folded sternly as he rolled his eyes, muttering "And Reapers to see…" sourly. He held out his hand, and I gingerly grabbed it as he flashed his by now slightly familiar razor-sharp grin, crouching a little. "Hold tight and pipe down." He said smugly, and before I could protest there was no _way_ I was letting myself be flown with only a grip on his wrist for assurance, we were rocketing upward as the bottom dropped out of my stomach, taking the breath from my lungs as I was about to scream and curse.

"Number 2 on what we teach her, flying lessons." DK grunted as Kage and her brother nodded and soared upwards with us, his nails almost piercing my skin from his death-tight grip on my wrist. "W-whats number one?" I managed to squeak, and he spared a grin downward in my direction. "How to fully transform." He said gleefully, and I nodded, returning to the all-important task of hanging on for dear life as he zoomed through the air, the countryside rolling out beneath my dangling feet in a way that might have been breathtaking, if all my breath hadn't already been taken by the stomach-churning fact that all that kept me up in the air was his grip on my wrist, and that he could drop me at any second and I would be powerless to stop him.

_Kage's POV:_

Hazel's face was white as chalk, and I could hardly blame her, suspended thousands of feet in the air by her wrist, her only life-support a demon who had no doubt already shown little to no regard for her life. So I slid under her easily, carefully making sure I could still fly as I smiled up at her. "So, what do you know about Nightstalker already?" I asked, and she made several swallowing noises, clinging to DK's wrist even more as I waited patiently. "Y-you c-can e-eat human souls and n-not turn K-Kishin." She whispered, her eyes tightly shut as she clung to DK with all her might. I nodded, although she couldn't see it, and kept my voice friendly as I asked "Nothing else?" She shook her head barely. I sighed, shaking my head a little in disappointment. "Well, I suppose we'll have to fill you in." I admitted, and DK accordingly quieted his wingbeats, along with myself and Akuma.

"See, we've got Weapon, Witch, and Meister souls all mixed into one, so we can eat the human, Kishin, and pretty much any soul we want because at least one of our soul-parts will be unaffected, thus allowing us to operate as normal. Me and Akuma are special cases, because we were possessed with demons when we were younger, and they bonded our souls together so we're on par with Lord Death and…do you know about Asura?" She peeled her eyes open, looking at me dumbly. "I'll take that as a no. How long were you in that lab?" I asked her curiously, and she blinked. "A couple years." I whistled under my breath as Akuma and DK nodded appreciatively. "That explains a lot. We'll definitely have to drop a line to Stein and ask him about a top-off of the war against Medusa and Arachne and all them." I said to the others, and they nodded as Hazel looked blank, having no idea what we were talking about, or who we were talking about. I sighed, sucking in a deep breath. "You see, about three or four months ago, we came to the DWMA…"

_**Right, that should fix my absence, and sorry about it. I don't really have anything else to say to you people, except hi. I may suddenly come out with some May n' Jays, we've been working at them again. So be warned…actually, I gotta go work on one of those with her. Review Request, Rcomment. Auf Wedersien!**_

_**2.16 PM, USA Central Time **_


	9. What am I?

_**Hello hello to all you happy people! Surprise chapter, courtesy of Zyxeel. I was in school the other day and they PMed how awesome my SE stories are and asked for the next chapter, so I obliged! Although after this my chapter output may be severely lessened; I have been threatened with not going on the computer all December if I don't redeem myself via Finals. Cross your fingers for me! Also, if you were reading my BB fanfic, I must apologize but I have a writer's block for that. Sorry. Also, I just finished FullMetal Alchemist Brotherhood, and I must say…wow. It was really a nice anime, I enjoyed it, even though they had an annoying habit of killing the characters I liked. (except for Ling and Scar! I was kinda bummed about Greed and Hughes, but whatever.)But I am seriously writing this at the speed of panic because I have about thirty minutes to get this done and out on the net. Studying for aforementioned finals don't cha know. Anyway, I better get on this.**_

_**November 24, 2013**_

* * *

_Who am I? One name you might have for me is the world, or you might call me the universe, or perhaps God, or perhaps the Truth. I am All, and I am One. So, of course, this also means that I am you. _

_-Truth_

* * *

_Hazel's POV:_

After Kage had thoroughly explained what had happened in the three or four years after I had been imprisoned in the lab, she and Akuma flew up and forward a little, leaving me and DK in the back. I felt a trace of nervousness, looking up at his calm face as I dangled thousands of feet in the air, adrenaline pumping through my veins frantically as I worried about him dropping me to impale myself on the trees, rocks, and hills below. "Yo, Hazel, relax. I gotcha." I flinched at his voice, glancing up again to see him smirking down at me, swallowing hard several times before answering. "I-I know. B-but my b-body doesn't." He chuckled a little at that, glancing at his two partners and then down at me. "Actually, it's your mind telling your body to freak out because you don't trust me or my strength to hold you up. Isn't it?" he said flippantly, and I blinked up at him in surprise, fear jolting through me with his next words. "In which case, I'll simply have to remove the troublesome source of dissent at its root. This may sting a little." He said abruptly, right before fire swept over my body and my mind went black.

_Sound was suddenly snatched away, and my body no longer felt the wind and the chill of being flown through air. My eyes slowly opened, and I gasped, my eyes snapping wide. I was in an endless white space, a black figure seated opposite me. I realized we were both sitting in a meditative position, standing up as the figure on the ground grinned widely, its teeth sharp and pointed. "DK?" I asked nervously, and he chuckled. __**I am the mental projection of that personality, yes.**__ He answered, and I blinked. "Where am I?" He laughed a little before answering smugly. __**You are inside me. Your mind is inside my soul and outside your body. **__I clenched my fists, anger firing in my heart. "Let me out! Who do you think you are, snatching me out of my body without so much as a by your leave! LET ME OUT YOU STUPID DEMON!" He was silent._

_I stared at him, breathing heavily, my fists still knotted together in my anger as he tilted his head, a blinding smile suddenly cutting through his empty blackness. __**That is correct. I am a demon. Which leads to a question I've been wanting to ask you.**__ I blinked again. "What question is that?" He chuckled for a moment, shaking his head slowly. __**Your answer, ironically enough. When I asked you to be my partner, you agreed without a moment's hesitation, knowing full well I was, as you accurately but not flatteringly put it, a demon. Why? Demons are supposed to be the anathema of your kind. Humans, I mean. Why say yes? You had no reason to.**__ He said simply, tracing a finger against the whiteness, his mouth gone and the cutout form still and silent, except for his arm and finger. "You saved me. I owed you a favor." I said in startlement, puzzled by his query. His grin was back, and he tossed his head backwards to laugh wildly for a few moments._

_**Interesting! You entered a pact with a demon though, HAZEL. You accepted the fact I was going to use your soul to augment my own power, as well as impart my own into yours. Don't deny it; even if it wasn't a conscious thought, your subconscious knew full well the deal you were making. That's the relationship between meister and weapon after all; they exist as partners to make each other stronger.**__ I froze. The thought of what I had done, the enormity of it, was crashing down upon me full force. __**That being said, I also have a…I suppose you could call it a test, for you. Do you know what I am? As my partner, you should be able to tell.**__ He added suddenly, looking up at me, and I blinked. What did he mean by that? "You're…you're a demon aren't you." I said hesitantly, and he stared at me, his outline shifting lazily. I got the feeling he was looking at me with disapproval. "You're…not human." I tried again, and now the disapproval was tinged with faint boredom._

"_DAMNIT! GIVE ME SOMETHING TO WORK WITH, YOU STUPID DEMON! GOD, YOU'RE SUCH A JERK…YOU BATARD!" I snarled at him, enraged by his enigmatic silence, and was rewarded with a faint stirring. His head dipped forward a little, and he seemed to be pondering my words. __**You have not named me for what I truly am.**__ He said sadly, and I blinked, feeling like I had somehow failed a VERY important test. He rested his chin on his hand, raising a finger to point at me as he spoke. __**Do you feel that? The boiling in your veins, the pressure inside your head, making you feel ready to kill something, hit something, destroy something and crumble it to ash? That is what I am. I am Rage. I am Gekido, which is the God of Rage. I am to anger as what Kage is to fear. I inspire rage in the hearts and minds of humans, draining their sanity, and taking their broken souls for my own use. I suppose you could use the crude analogy of rust.**_

_I opened my mouth, about to talk back and ask him what the hell he was talking about, but he suddenly held up a metal arm, like a skeleton's. __**I contaminate a being with rage. I drive their reason, their joy, their happiness, and their fear out of them, slowly drain away everything into nothing until all that's left for them is anger, rage, and pain.**__ His fist tightened, and the arm turned brown, the metal bones corroding at the speed of time before my eyes as they widened, terrified. His face was blank and emotionless as he spoke. __**And when they are mere steps from death, when the last breath of life is slipping from their open mouths…**__ The arm crumbled to crusty metal flakes, the fragments dropping like orange rain from his fist. __**I devour them. I take them into myself by swallowing their souls and using them to fuel rage for new victims. That is the way I am. That is how I exist. And I ask you again, why do you still stand here? Why do you dare to assume the position of my partner? What is to stop me from destroying you in the same way and simply using your soul as my weapon? Hmm?**__ He asked bluntly, and I swallowed hard._

"_Look, DK, it seems pretty obvious what you're trying to do." He raised an eyebrow. "You're trying to scare me. You want me to be afraid of you and run away. I don't really care WHY, but I AM your partner, like it or not. I made a deal, as you put it, and I don't go back on my deals." He blinked twice, his gaze registering shock. "So then, enough with the melodramatics, and shut the hell up." I finished, waiting nervously for his reaction as deafening silence spread over the mental plane we were in. He suddenly tossed his head back again, laughing so hard he almost fell over. __**Good one kid! You're a little idiotic still, but I like your spunk.**__ He snorted with tears in his eyes, looking up at me and finally standing, almost the same height as me, a little taller. He outstretched his hand to mine, his skin coming into view as the blackness peeled back, revealing his baggy clothes and faint scars, the one that traced across his cheek the faintest of all, barely there, his black-red eyes no longer terrifying, but strangely inviting. __**Let's try this again. Partners?**__ He asked with a grin, and I grinned back, firmly clasping his hand with my own and giving it a decisive shake. "Yeah. Partners."_

I blinked, the world coming back, and I saw a face inches from mine, black pits right up against my own eyes. I yelped, scrambling back with my heart pounding, and DK snorted, straightening as I stared up at him, all of us having landed and me apparently flat out on my back, Akuma and Kage looking down at me with indulgently amused expressions. "C'mon guys, we don't have all year." Kage said impatiently, and DK rolled his eyes, extending his hand like he had mere seconds ago. "You heard the boss…partner. C'mon." he said encouragingly, and I hesitantly smiled at him as I grabbed his wrist, letting his black nails dig into my arm and haul me to my feet. Kage and Akuma blinked at me for a second, then grinned, and I had a sudden feeling like I had been accepted into their little group, a happy feeling of comradeship and belonging washing over me as DK clapped me on the shoulder, pointing lazily to the door straight ahead of us.

"See that? That's where Lord Death holds court. Ready to say hi?"

Well, there goes my confidence. I swear, sometimes I want to kill my partner.

_**OMG! I actually did it! I finished this in less than an hour! My fingers are very sore and I stayed up a little, but it's DONE BY ALL THAT'S FREAKISH AND UNHOLY! I'm so impressed with myself. *beams* Please review and make me feel appreciated, I'll try to write again soon if all goes well with the tests n' all. Review, Request, Rcomment, Auf Wedersien!**_

_**9.23 PM, USA Central Time**_


	10. Poke-Poke

_**Hey again peoples! I still can't get inspired for the BB fanfic, but I do seem to have a bunch of ideas for the SE one. *shrug* I'm working on it, don't you guys worry. I'm also working on my OneTrueMedia stuff, which is a website where you can compose slideshows and suchlike for free, although you have to pay to actually SHARE them with anyone. I can't pay; therefore you guys can't see it. Sorry about that, but it's not like YOU'D want to see the videos; most of them are Hellsing-centric. So far I have (and that's really all I've done with the site) tributes for:**_

_**Alucard: Dance with the Devil**_

_**Seras: Riot**_

_**Anderson: Let the Bodies Hit the Floor**_

_**Integra: Get off of my Back (don't start nagging me about that one; it was the only one that fit her character!)**_

_**Schrödinger: Her Name is Alice**_

_**Rip Van Winkle: Makes You Stronger **_

_**Walter: (Young) Get it On (Dark) Six Foot Deep (Old) Well…I haven't gotten far enough to start on his old version, but I will eventually!**_

_**So yeah…and making those takes a while, 'cause I gotta sync the pictures to the lyrics and actually FIND the music/pictures, which takes FOREVER. Just to give you a feel for it, I've done a couple two-minute songs and they've required at LEAST thirty pictures, and they were mid-paced songs too. Seras's was the hardest; the music was easy, but I had to put at least sixty-some pictures in there because it went so dang fast. And they all had to be jpeg (OneTrueMedia won't take practically any other format). And all different. And yeah, it took a while. *inhale deeply* Anywhich and how, on with the "show".**_

_**November 30, 2013**_

_**December 1, 2013**_

* * *

_History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives_

_-A_

* * *

_DK's POV:_

Hazel was scared stiff. I could tell and Fear wasn't even my forte. How? Perhaps it was the way she stood, so close to the three of us. Perhaps it was the link I had started up, fragile and shaky, but strong enough to tell she was on edge.

Or maybe it was the fact she was shaking like a leaf.

I sighed heavily, dragging in a deep breath through my nose and impatiently sending a tidal wave of _calm_ through our link, making her squeak and jump, staring at me with wide eyes. _He's not gonna eat you alive genius. Chill out and take a deep breath._ I thought irritably to her, and she managed a shaky inhale, followed by a yelp as Lord Death ploughed through the surface of his mirror, jumping back as her arm flickered, turning smooth and metal-y for a split second before she saw the towering figure wasn't going to eat her or whatever she was panicked about. "HIYAH KAGE, AKUMA, ITS SO GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN!" he crowed gleefully, scooping them both up in a painful-looking hug as I hurriedly stepped back, not wanting to chance something of the same.

Hazel was turning to flee, and I caught her by the shoulder before she could, dragging her up to Lord Death as he released my comrades. "Got a new partner Reaper. Thought I should let you give her the all clear." I grunted, hoisting her up by the collar as she squirmed and yelped in indignance, being dangled in the air like an errant kitten before the reaper as he put a hand to his "chin", considering her. "DK YOU JERK PUT ME DOWN NOW!" she screeched, and I grinned before opening my hand, letting her fall to the ground with another yelp upon impact, glaring at me as she rubbed her bum. "I…HATE…you…" she growled venomously, and I grinned modestly, helping her to her feet. "Sticks and stones kid." I retorted cheerfully, making her scowl more. Lord Death cleared his throat as we all looked towards him, Hazel straightening her clothes and sending me frequent evil glares, which I totally ignored.

"So, what kind of weapon is she?" the Reaper asked, putting his hands behind his back and swaying back and forth as he considered my partner, and I grinned wickedly. "Panzerfaust, or at least some kind of heavy artillery cannon." I said excitedly, and he blinked. "An artillery weapon? I haven't heard of those in decades! May I see?" he asked, and I nodded, grabbing Hazel by the collar again –hearing yet _another_ outraged yelp– and dropping her in front of the Reaper. "All yours squirt. Take it away." I said calmly, shoving my hands in my pockets and taking a step or two back as she sat up, looking confused and slightly betrayed. "Well. Go on." Lord Death said, waving his hands at her encouragingly as she blinked up at him. "Do what?" I smacked my forehead, dragging in a deep breath as irritation boiled under my skin, muttering something hopefully none of them could understand as Hazel gave me an apologetic look. _Transform into a weapon genius._ I thought with a glare, and she squeaked and closed her eyes, obviously concentrating hard.

After a few seconds her arm glowed, shifted, and transformed into a long cannon barrel, which Lord Death examined minutely, ignoring the panting weapon before him. "She has excellent form, although if she can only transform her arm you may have problems wielding her. How's your Soul Bonding going?" he asked, and I made a circle with my thumb and index. "Great. And we're gonna work on the transforming, but I have a cheat code." I said with a wicked grin, and Hazel blinked at me, looking nervous. Lord Death cocked his head. "A "cheat code" for weapon transformation?" he asked incredulously, and I grinned wider, motioning for Hazel to stand up. She did so, and I cradled my chin with my hand, frowning as I studied her. "It should be right…"

Poke.

"There." Hazel squeaked as I poked her shoulder, her eyes going wide as she fluidly shifted, her body writhing into a long, familiar shape as she clattered to the floor, in full weapon form. "_Hey! What did you DO?!_" she gasped, flashing onto the barrel of the cannon as I picked it up, shifting her a little in my hands to get the weight. "Little known fact about Weapons; they always have a pressure point that shifts them completely to weapon form, willing or not." I said absently, smirking as Hazel gaped indignantly at me from her metal stock, shifting the gun to cradle the butt against my shoulder, aiming off into the distance. "May I?" Lord Death shrugged and nodded. "Hold on to your hats ladies and gentlemen." I muttered, curling my finger around her trigger and lightly squeezing it, bracing my feet as a large amount of my Soul Wavelength blasted out of the end, driving me back slightly as Kage swore and held a hand to her eyes, Akuma doing the same. I smirked and tossed Hazel up against my shoulder, surveying the damage.

A large crater was blasted into the floor of the Death Room, smoke rising dramatically from the center as I poked Hazel again, allowing her to shift back to human as she dragged in deep breathes, eyes wide. "Not bad kid. Not bad at all." I congratulated her, and she shifted her glare to me, still panting. "Do not…do that…_again_…" she growled, and I grinned wickedly at her, not answering. "Forced transformation does feel a like strange, but you're also a bit wiped out from your first use. Lord Death, requesting permission to take her around the school and say hi to everyone." Kage said sharply, standing at attention as Lord Death waved his hands at her, shooing us away. "Yes yes, go on, have fun! And remember to say hi to Kid! He's been lonely!" he called after us, and Akuma and I both made faces as Hazel looked confused.

_Hazel's POV:_

I trailed behind DK and the others, feeling very much like a third wheel as the other three were hailed by various kids, including a girl with pink hair and a guy with a bald head and two spikes of black hair sticking up behind his ears, his glasses opaque and strangely swirled. "Oh look guys, they're back!" I jumped as I heard another voice, turning as DK and the others did the same, seeing a girl with two ponytails and a trench coat with a guy with white hair and red eyes and some kid with blue hair standing in spikes behind _them_, along with a tall girl, her black hair pulled back in a ponytail. "Oh, and there's someone new." she added in surprise, and I flushed slightly as DK laid his long-nailed hand on my shoulder, probably grinning. "This is my new partner, Hazel. Hazel, in left to right order this is Trenchie, Red Eyes, Ego Maniac, and Flower Lady. Nails and Sparky are off with Stripes doing whatever they're doing." he said proudly, and I sweatdropped, mentally cursing his stupid urge to annoy people.

The girl in ponytails stepped forward, holding out her hand with a rueful smile. "Sorry about him, my name's Maka Albarn, this is my partner Soul, and those two are Blackstar and Tsubaki." she said warmly, gripping my hand as I gently shook it, looking up to Kage and Akuma. "Liz and Patty are with Kid on an extra-curricular, they won't be back until tomorrow." she added, and Kage pouted as Akuma wiped his forehead, drawing in a deep breath. _Don't ask kid._ DK's voice echoed in my head as I took breath to question their reactions, and I snapped my mouth shut, staring at him questioningly. He grinned._ Yes, you are hearing voices. No, you are not going crazy. All Nightstalker establish a telepathic communication with their partner, it's like part of the uniform. Not that we __**have**__ a uniform…_ He added the last part in what I guessed was the telepathic version of a mutter, cupping his chin again and thinking as he did so.

"Well see ya guys, we gotta get Hazel settled and start on our training." Kage said abruptly, and DK once again latched onto my wrist as we started walking, and I stifled an eep as we were pulled into cold syrupy blackness, beginning to struggle in panic before DK irritably tightened his grip on my wrist, his sharp black nails threatening to break skin. _**Chill kid, how many times I gotta say it? This is the safest place**__**you can ever find, okay? If Kage, me, or Akuma are ever here with you, there's absolutely no harm that can come to you unless we actually WANT to hurt you ourselves. Shadows are what Kage's made of, and I spent a fair amount of time in them as well. Now just calm down and hold still. Panic makes Kage hungry.**_ His telepathic voice boomed all around me, like we were in a huge hall, and suddenly everything got warm again as he pulled me out of the shadows with a sharp tug.

I stumbled, not used to this yet, and both Kage and DK hauled me up, which was surprising. She gave me a slightly amused look, letting go of my arm. "I know how disorienting shadow-walking can get for greenhorns. Just let it flow." she said, opening a door in front of us as I gulped, seeing dark green walls and light grey furniture in an almost completely normal living room, with a TV and everything. DK promptly walked over to a slightly worn couch and sat, kicking his legs up so it was impossible for any of us to join him. "C'mon kid, let's show ya around." Akuma said, ignoring his companion as he led me to a kitchen with brown cabinets, Kage opening the drawers and showing me where everything was as I relaxed, somehow more at ease now that these Nightstalker –the name I had heard so many times in campfire spook tales– needed forks, spoons, knives, as well as a microwave and oven.

I was shown to both their rooms, which looked almost exactly alike, storm-grey wallpaper with dark-colored wood desks and a bed, blankets black and dark grey respectively. My room was bare, and Kage knelt, reaching for a paint can as Akuma grabbed some woodworking tools, looking at me expectantly. "What color do you want for your walls?" Kage asked briskly, and I shrugged, looking around absently. At first I wanted to say pink just to see what they would do, but I quickly quelled the thought. "Uh…red I guess? Maybe like a really dark red, like wine-red?" I asked, and they both looked slightly surprised but approving, and Kage stuck her hand in the paint can, then touched it to the wall as the exact color I wanted, which looked a bit like dark blood, spread outward from her dry palm and fingers. "Wood decoration?" she asked, and I shrugged. "Uh…dark, matching I guess?" I asked, and she nodded as Akuma swiped the tool up and down the bedpost, a loud scraping sound following as a cloud of sawdust rose, sounding like he was grinding the surface down rapidly.

Some minutes later, my room looked rather nice, a simple bed with dark purple blankets and lots and lots of pillows tucked into the corner by the window, a rather stylish desk with mahogany wood on the opposite wall with a respectable bookcase in the third corner, my door in the fourth. When asked for an explanation, Akuma told me the magic tools they used had been given to them by a Nightstalker friend of theirs and they were for home decoration _only_. The floor had remained unchanged, he explained, because their friend hadn't given them anything to change the carpet, so I was stuck with an off-white flooring. I had a bedside table of the same wood the bed was made out of, an alarm clock on top with a few drawers on the sides, when opened showing…_knives_?!

"One of the things we'll be teaching you is self defense without the use of your weapon form. This includes the use of knives, and we'll periodically jump you in your sleep to make sure you can use them correctly. Breakfast is at six thirty, and we expect you to be awake for at least ten minutes before then. We leave for school at six forty and DWMA enrollment starts at seven am. School lets out at three pm, and the rest of the afternoon will be spent on homework and training. Every other week we switch back to Nightstalker training, schedule, and location. Be prepared to shift on a moment's notice however; this life is never certain. DK's waiting to begin your training for tonight; we're going to do the same in the DWMA grounds. Have fun." Kage said briskly, dusting her hands off, and before I could protest they were both gone, melted out of existence by the shadows that seemed to hesitate before going back to normal, even my own. I stared at where they had been, feeling a lump of protest rise in my throat. _Have fun…what do they think he's gonna do, teach me sewing?! He may be my partner, but I know any training a demon's going to dish out isn't gonna be fun!_

_**Hi everybody! Nice to see you all…however, I have a somewhat pressing matter I urge you all to pay attention to. My best friend, whose name I have not been given permission to mention, but it does start with D, is in a serious fix. He father's pressing an all or nothing (her mom and dad are divorced, her father lives in Iowa) court possession, which means in normal-people-speak that if he wins, he gets total custody of my best friend, which means she has to live with him and her mom gives up all rights to be her mom. Now, I have two problems with this. One, my best friend hates his guts. Two, that means there's about negative billion percent chance she can continue being my friend all the way over in Iowa. So yeah, I would like some positive thoughts on that. Beam them to her; I'll make it worth the effort. Or send advice on what she can do (she's fourteen, if that helps) to help win the case, encouragement for her (she's rather panicked about it), just send your two cents to help. "A kind word and a helping hand" n' all that. To make matters even worse, the court hearing is on December 12**__**th**__** and 13**__**th**__**, which if you check your calendar is FRIDAY THE FREAKING 13**__**TH**__**! An all-or-nothing court case on Friday the 13**__**th**__** to decide whether my best friend goes bye-bye or she never has to worry about seeing her scumbag (her words, not mine) dad ever again. THE TENSION IS UNBELIEVABLE! She's really running in circles, despite my calm and sometimes sarcastic advice on the matter. (I have told her that the fathers rarely win these things, and she has plenty of evidence against him taking possession of her. The sarcastic part was when I made fun of her for freaking out.) Just drop a review and I'll show her, it ain't that hard. Help a poor soul. *clinks begging bowl* Hehe, seriously now. Give her some pep. Review, Request, Rcomment, Auf Wedersien! **_

_**9.16 PM, USA Central Time**_


	11. Darkness and Death Part 1

_**Thank you, ladies and gents, for your words on concern on my best friend. FadingEcho12193, she has told him many times, as well as pretty much anybody that has a say in whether or not he gets to keep her. Honestly, I don't even know how that side of her family (father's) managed to put this idea on the table; to prove they are worthier of having my friend, she has to like them, they have to be able to take better care of her, and the school care has to be either better or at least equal to ours. Here are three telling points AGAINST that.**_

_**She hates her stepmom (fairytale flashback anyone?) and loathes her dad. **_

_**Her stepmom (under admitted goading from my best friend) hit her so hard in the arm that it left a purple bruise between the size of a dinner plate and an apple when she came to school, several days later.**_

_**The school care (she has the same mental disorder I do) our system has is one of the best there is and my parents seriously doubt the one she might have to go to is better.**_

_**Anyway, I've had some complaints about having too long of the foreword and afterword's, so I'm gonna go ahead with the story.**_

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_Love: a temporary insanity, curable by marriage._

_-A_

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_DK's POV:_

Once Hazel was shown around the apartment, Kage and Akuma left to get started on their training as I settled down with my train wreck of a partner to do more of the same. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, facing off, I took in a slow breath and opened my eyes. She was staring at me with an expression that looked uncannily like a deer about to be crashed in the headlights, her copper eyes looking wide as coins. "Relax." I said ponderously, lightly tapping her in the center of the forehead with the point of my index nail, and she squeaked, scrambling back as her arm turned fluid and glowing. _Well…at least she's better at shifting now._ I thought irritably as she realized her mistake and sat back down with a flush, hiding her face best she could with her rough-cut bob of black hair. "Has it occurred to you that at this point in time I have no interest in harming you in any way shape or form?" I asked drily, and she blushed deeper, mumbling something and fidgeting with her hands.

I sighed heavily, locking my hands together and cracking my fingers expertly, like a pianist. "Well, let's get this party started. One of our main problems with you at this point is you really don't like going in the shadow realm, do ya?" She gulped slightly and shook her head as I mentally grinned. _Smart girl knows what's coming._ "And you really don't want to go in them any more than ya have to?" Another head shake. I allowed the wicked grin to emerge on my face as she paled slightly, swallowing audibly. "Tough luck squirt, we use it often and we use it fast. For instance, using shadows I can be right here-" I reached down to forcefully scoop my wayward partner up in the air as I came out behind her back "-right here-" I faded back into existence on the ceiling, placing my hand in the middle of her chest and shoving back down as she nearly drilled a hole in the ceiling. "-and right here almost all at once, ya got me squirt?" I asked, catching her neatly bridal style as she came down again, grinning smugly to myself. _Still got it…_

I waited for her to regain her breathing and heartbeat to a more relaxed pace before dropping her on the floor again, stepping over her to find my seat again and stare at her evenly as she sat up, her eyes burning molten in a way I found most amusing. "DO. NOT. **EVER**. DO. THAT. AGAIN." she said slowly and menacingly, and I yawned lazily, making a shooing motion at her. "Yeah yeah kid, bad me. But in all seriousness, I'm gonna be popping in and out of the shadows all the time, and it kinda wastes the whole idea if you have to wait until I pop out and then scamper on over, get it?" I asked, and she bit her lip, shrugging sheepishly. "So then, we're gonna have to get rid of your shadow phobia." I said briskly, snapping my fingers (for dramatic effect don't cha know) as shadows swirled up from all corners of the room and enveloped us, making her give a tiny cry of panic and curl up in a ball. "Kid…you have _problems_…" I said wearily, rubbing my forehead with both hands.

"Look! The cat! Even the _cat_ doesn't care!" I managed to growl, jabbing a pointer at said feline, busily grooming itself about three feet away, the shadows forming a dome over our heads with her curled up against one of the walls. She hissed and promptly walked right through them, making Hazel squeak. "C-cat! Why is the cat gone?!" she squealed, pointing to where the black shape had disappeared as I made a face, rubbing my temples with one hand as I wearily shoved her own down. "One, the cat's name is Salem, and she's Kage's. Two, that should be explanation enough, but if it doesn't click with you, Kage is the freaking _queen_ of shadows; she can do it in her sleep. Three, I didn't make the shadows solid, you can pass right through them." I said at great length, and she blinked, then flushed slightly in embarrassment, and I snorted before folding my arms. "So then kid, get to it."

She gave me a blank look. I made a lazy shooing motion with one hand. "Go on. Scoot. Move it. Pack the bags and hit the road." I elaborated, and she still stared at me like I was going crazy. I rolled my eyes and casually stabbed my hand through the wall of shadows. "Touch them. You aren't leaving this bubble until you are completely comfortable with passing through the shadow realm, at least in quick bursts." I growled, and she blinked, scooting around on her bum to look nervously at the gently pulsing wall of shadows behind her. "But…" I rolled my eyes, getting her attention by nosily getting up to my knees and backing through the membrane, pausing as she cried out in fear. "Hey wait no! Stop it! I can deal with them! I can deal with them!" she shrieked, and I smirked, leaning back in. "I know squirt. That's what this is _for_ after all. All you have to do is leave the bubble, which as you may notice you can't do unless you learn to deal with the shadows." I said soothingly, and she blinked at me stupidly, then her mouth dropped open indignantly.

"That's not fair! You made it sound like I had to deal with them scaring me and attacking me and whatever!" she screeched, and I grinned, lazily making a motion with my fingers as tentacles of shadow freed themselves from the bubble to waft towards her. "We can learn that way if you _really_ wanna." I said mischievously, and she squealed again, making me laugh as I retracted the shadows quickly into the bubble. "Just teasing kid. I'll be waiting outside." I said, leaning back out and leaning against the couch, mentally envisioning the inside of my little "bubble" and watching as Hazel stared at the spot I had last been, making a tiny whimpering sound in her throat. I sighed, running one of my long-nailed hands through my fine hair, again feeling the strangeness of being the _only_ one to comb _my_ hair out and feel how soft it was on _my_ palm. This singularity business was turning out to be a learning experience.

_Hazel's POV:_

I stared at the blank curving wall, trying to curb my whimpers. _Calm down Hazel! It's just a big blank sheet of…of something! It isn't going to eat you! It's just shadows! They can't hurt you! You can do this!_ I thought mentally to brace myself, then inhaled deeply, crawling over to the blank wall and setting my palm against it, pressing gently. It gave a little, but firmer pressure had my palm _pressing through_ the black stuff, which felt thinner than paper, but giving and membranous. I drew it back with a little gasp, wiping my hand against my pants rapidly. The shadows felt cool and slick to the touch, a bit like jello but stretchier somehow, more tough. When I broke my hand through the thin barrier it was the same suction-like sensation of sinking your foot into a deep patch of mud that squelched when you pulled it free, although it did not cling the same.

_You got this Hazel. You can do this. DK did this, how hard can it be? He's an annoying meanie demon, so you can do it too, right? You don't want him to show you up do you? _That thought was more than enough motivation, and holding my breath, I shoved against the barrier of shadows, feeling them part around and for me, but squeaked in shock as I continued to fall forward, almost smashing my nose on the hardwood floors before I brought my hands up to stop myself. I heard the familiar laughter of DK, looking past my bangs to see him lounging on the couch, laughing his head off at me as I growled, starting to get up but freezing as my knee hit resistance. I looked down at myself nervously, squeaking and scrambling forward as I realized only my torso had come through the shadows and my legs were still in the bubble, slamming into what I thought was the couch as I panted heavily, staring at the evil bubble as my heart galloped at a million miles a minute. "Ahem." A sharp fingernail tapped demandingly on the crown of my head, and I looked up, only to stare deep into DK's face, his mouth stretched in his familiar cocky grin. "Yo."

I squeaked again, realizing I was sitting on his feet and between his legs, scrambling backwards for the millionth time that day, my heart pounding for an entirely different reason now as he started laughing again, which only made me want to punch him, my fists curling. He laughed like an evil genius does in the movies, his head tossed back and his pointy teeth on full display as he chortled like I had told him a killer joke. "Do you LIKE scaring me out of my mind?!" I hissed at him, and he snorted, raising his hand as if to say "gimme a minute" as he continued to laugh, toning it down to a chuckle before tilting his head back down, smirking at me pityingly. "Kid, you are just too much fun to scare. Your face was _priceless_…" he managed to gasp, breaking out into maniacal laughter again as I sighed, cradling my temple in one hand as I tried to stop from launching myself off the floor and pummeling him into an apologetic paste. Finally he stopped, taking in a deep breath before looking at me somewhat seriously. "Good job though kid, I was beginning to think I'd have to drag you out by the ankle." he said honestly, making me flush for some odd reason. "Er…yeah."

He gave me a raised eyebrow, and all was silent for a few moments. "Well squirt, we've overcome the whole shadow problem. Let's try some psychical training now. Hit me." I jumped to my feet, a bit startled, and stepped forward, lightly punching my fist at him. He did not move and it flashed to the right an inch from his face. "Hit me like you actually mean to genius." he said with a "really?" look, and I flushed, trying to hit him harder. He leaned to the side a little, and I stumbled forward, my fist missing his face by a few inches. "Not bad, not bad, but your stance is off. Watch how you hold your feet, otherwise-" I quickly braced myself for a leg sweep, but he surprised me, lightly bopping my head with his fist –which hurt a lot more than anyone _normal_ doing it– and as I was trying to think through the pain of _that_, his foot hooked around mine and jerked, sending me to land butt-first on the ground as he folded his arms. "Someone sends you down to meet terra firma, permanently and otherwise. I have yet to hear of someone winning a fight from the ground." he said sarcastically, offering a hand to help me up as I glared at him, rubbing my head.

"I hate you." He smirked, making a "c'mon" motion with his hands and settling into a comfortable pose. "I try. C'mon squirt, we have all day and you still haven't scratched my pretty face." he teased me, and I growled, sending my fist forward as he lightly jumped back, following up as he smirked, ducking his head and jumping backwards again, landing perfectly on the coffee table as I stumbled, expecting to have hit _something_ apart from air. "Move it squirt, if I wanna see someone trip over their feet I can go to a bar. Brace your feet as you move them forward, don't expect to hit me even though I'm going easy on you." he said helpfully, arching his body away from my fist again and jumping away, somehow not losing a microbe of balance as he went from the coffee table to the floor in a double step and hop. I screamed in frustration and swung harder, trying to remember what he said as I fought him across the room, trying to at least get him to give ground as my punches didn't seem to be doing _anything_.

_**Well, this chapter and the next one were the same, but eventually I just split them apart because this was stretching on WAY too long. Review Request Rcomment and read the next chapter. Auf Wedersien! **_


	12. Darkness and Death Part 2

_**Second half of previous chapter, part two. Enjoy!**_

_**December 3-7, 2013**_

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_Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victems he intends to eat until he eats them._

_-A_

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_Hazel's POV:_

_Smothering blackness eating me whole, devouring me into the shadows as I struggled on the metal table, the bright light above me covered by a hand with long black nails, mocking laughter ringing in my head as I was sucked further and further into nothing…_ I jerked upright with a gasp, my hands covering my chest as I panted, registering the dark red and brown of my room and realizing I was in Kage and Akuma's apartment, my breathing calming just a little as I swallowed once. Nightmare. A bad one. Nothing more. It didn't convince me, and I shakily slid out of bed, thinking that maybe Kage and Akuma had come back from their training –which they hadn't, even after DK had proceeded to get bored and start whooping me, even after dinner– as I walked down the hallway.

Not a single light was on, and I was working more from memory and stubbed my toe plenty of times, cursing and rubbing it in the dark as I continued on to the living room. I sighed with relief as I saw the couch, my eyes almost adjusted to the dark, walking over and about to collapse on it as I heard a voice. "Don't sit on me kid." I squeaked and jerked away, my heart rising in my mouth as I saw two faint glowing eyes, a soft chuckle alerting me to exactly who I had almost sat on. "What are you doing up?" I closed my mouth, about to ask him the same question, hearing him shift a little on the couch as I sat on the coffee table, realizing I hadn't seen a room for him, unless he shared with Kage or Akuma. "Bad dream." I muttered, and to my surprise he didn't laugh. "Mm. Well our compatriots aren't back yet, so we seem to be alone in our misery." he said drily, and I saw his eyes blink once.

They were glowing a faint but actually not that disturbing red-orange, a bit like molten copper but a little more….red. I could at least tell where his face was, which was a bit of a blessing in this wretched darkness. "So why are _you_ up?" I asked, and I heard a rustle, as if he put his hands behind his head. "Can't sleep." I raised an eyebrow. "You get nightmares too?" He chuckled a little, and I saw his eyes close as he shook his head. "Nah, I _can't_ sleep. Like, I find it physically impossible. One of the nastier side effects of being a demon I 'spose." he said absently, and I saw his eyes shift down, as if he was looking at his over-sharp nails. "Can you see in the dark?" The glowing orbs shifted to me, and I saw a faint sarcasm in them. "Okay yeah, I guess you can. Sorry about that." I muttered, and he looked back down.

"So squirt, let's get to know each other. Your name's Hazel, you're a cannon weapon, you have black hair and copper eyes. Build on that." he said with a sigh, and I gave what I thought to be him an incredulous glare. "Hey, you have to answer some questions too. I can't have you knowing everything about me when I know nothing about you." I said indignantly, and he closed his eyes. "Fine, but I get three passes. We'll switch off, you ask a question, I ask, you ask, etcetera. You first." I stared at him, and then shrugged in agreement. "Uh…how old are you?"

"Nine hundred and eighty seven. This particular incarnation, three weeks. How old are _you_?"

"Fourteen. What do you mean "this incarnation?"

"I've been in at least four forms, my original, when I died, when I got fused to Akuma, and my newest, this one. More if you count being re-demonized and all that. Why were you in that lab?"

"I don't know, sorry… What was your real name?"

"Pass. Do you have family that might be missing you back home?"

"Yeah…my Nana and my parents, but they might think I'm dead. What happened to your face?"

"Excuse me?" I saw him start in the darkness, sheepishly rubbing the back of my head as I traced down my cheek in illustration. "The scar on your cheek. If you're in a new incarnation, then that means you got it in your original form, since Akuma doesn't have a scar like that. What happened?" He was dead silent for a moment, and when he spoke, his voice was harsh for a reason I couldn't understand. I _think_ it was anger…but it could've been fear? "Pass. And _don't_ mention it again." I nodded quietly, looking at my hands as I heard a gusty sigh from his direction. "Aw geez…we make quite a pair, don't we?" I shrugged, blushing a little at the _we_. "Kage wants to scout out the area we found you in. If there's one thing Nightstalker are good at, it's sticking their noses in and squashing the potential competition. We may not eat babies, but not all the stories you hear are blown completely out of proportion." I paled.

The only story I knew that he must be referring to was "The Clan of 1,000", which was sort of a folk tale/campfire spook story in my hometown. Legend had it that many hundreds of years ago, a clan of humans started building power in our area and continued to build power until they challenged the Nightstalker in rule, almost a thousand and more in numbers. The Nightstalker said they would send a person to meet with the other clan's leader, and they did. The person was a single man, and he killed every last clan member, down to the babies in their cribs, at the supposed "meeting". The really scary part was that the Nightstalker supposedly missed some cousins that hadn't taken to the martial way, and that every so often someone in our area would disappear because the shadowy assassins had found another person of the tainted bloodline and killed them.

"Good hunt, that." I squeaked, my mind gone way back, looking in shock at DK, my eyes now totally adjusted to the night vision. He was staring at the ceiling, hands behind his head. A faint smile was playing around the corners of his mouth. "Huh?" He closed his eyes with the faint smile growing just a little. "That one clan. It was a good hunt." I swallowed hard. "You…you were there?!" He chuckled a little, closing his glowing eyes. "I was the one they sent to exterminate the clan. And the part about us still hunting them down is utter crap. I got every last one." His eyes opened as he said that last bit, grinning to himself. I stared at him, in shock that the instigator to one of my favorite campfire stories was sitting –laying– just a few feet away from me. He raised an eyebrow. "You wanna hear about it?" I gulped, then nodded weakly as his eyes swiveled back to the ceiling, grinning to himself still.

"Well let's see…about four hundred and fifty years ago, the Nightstalker got wind that an ambitious little mud-roller wanted to be top dog and was gathering his own clan of thugs. They couldn't have that, so I was summoned lickety-split. They didn't like summoning my sister. She always tried to twist things around to her advantage, and she was never one for something this lowly. So I was dragged out of my own little pocket of afterlife, coming into this world with the scent of blood fresh in my nose. Sacrificed a goat, don't cha know. I came out right on top of its corpse, and the first thing I remember was the sensation of heat from its dying body, and the reek of freshly spilled blood hot and coppery as it swilled around the temple, the sound of its dying bleat crashing into my eardrums as I formed out of nothing." I wanted to flee in revulsion, but I couldn't move, too caught up in the story.

"It was pretty simple what they wanted. I was to go to the clan leader, have a short chat with him, and then kill every person related to him or in his little clan of "assassins". I didn't argue. I didn't care why they wanted the humans dead; I didn't care about killing them, I was just glad to be free of the dead zone I was trapped in. That's what happens you know, when you are recruited as a demon into the Nightstalker. You're stuck in an abstract reality of their afterlife, where everything's grey and dead and flavorless. Nothing like this world. I was so glad to be out and free; it was almost like being reborn. So off I went, like a good little lapdog. I still remember the shape of the moon that night…" He raised a hand, squeezing it into a fist like he was grabbing the moon. "So bright and big and full. Harvest Moon on a summer's night." he chuckled in a murmur, lowering his hand again.

"I killed that leader first. It wasn't an assassination, I didn't care if I was caught or not. I broke his neck right in the middle of proceedings, right in front of half the clan's warriors and officials. He had been reaching to shake my hand, and I simply reached over and snapped the fragile bone like a little twig. Humans are so very delicate after all; it doesn't take much to silence you. The others were so stunned. Nobody said a word. Their faces…it was priceless. All the noise in the world narrowed down to the torches, crackling, crackling, and I thought to myself, why not make their bones crackle as well? So I did. I crushed in their skulls like little bird eggs, and I felt it as their brains collapsed and squelched together. I snapped their necks and broke their backs as they tried to run. It was so amusing…none of them, so-called "hardened assassins", tried to fight me. They all ran." he murmured, and I saw his eyes gleam brighter, the hair on the back of my neck prickling as the somewhat sarcastic but still at least friendly demon devolutionized, becoming something primal, hungry.

Evil.

"The weaker ones were next…all the warriors had fled or died. I found a blade somewhere, maybe I killed the owner, I don't know. It was sharp and long, and it could do the job. Do you know, little human, when bloodlust creeps in and everything around you is outlined in crimson, that if you trace a line just _so_ with a blade_-_" I gulped as he lightly ran a finger diagonal across his throat. "- it spatters the rest of your vision in red, so it looks like the world is drowning in madness? I played with that image with the rest of the men, and some of the women, but eventually that grew boring and I switched to something else. Did you know too, that if you shove a knife just under _here-_" He suddenly put a finger under his chin and pushed it up in illustration, making me gulp again as I imagined a real blade doing that. "-that it seals the jaw shut? They can't scream because the blade locked their jaws together and cut their tongue, but most can't anyway, because the knife pierced their brain. I finished the rest of the females off that way, and some of the older children, but it was too much of a bother to do it to the younger ones. They're too close to the ground to bother." He examined his nails as he said this, yawning a little.

"So I merely snapped their necks as well. Crushed a few skulls, mostly the babies that took too much time to grab. So that's what happened. I killed every last one of them and painted the walls of their sanctuary in blood and ichor. Took off after the survivors in the dark and hunted them down one by one with the blade I found and my bare hands. Not a single one got away, and I made a stack of bodies on the front porch to show what my masters wanted, a warning to stay out of _their_ hunting grounds. Walked off covered in blood, blade in hand, looking at the bright pretty moon. Well kid? You still not afraid of demons in the dark?" His voice lowered slightly at the end, his bright white smile fading slowly until he was staring at me evenly, his eyes calm and challenging as he raised a sardonic eyebrow. I quaveringly shook my head as he snorted. "Yeah right. I can see your fear, and my sister can smell it. I'm not stupid Hazel." His voice was almost disappointed, and I flushed, looking at my hands. "I'm…that isn't you."

He snorted again, sounding bitter. "I'm not some sparkly vampire that changes its instincts just because I like somebody. I am a demon and there's nothing that can change that, which means I do things you think are evil and enjoy them. _I don't change_." he said sharply, giving me a glare from his couch, and I shook my head again. "You have. Kage and Akuma trust you and see you as their friend, which means you at least have managed to control your self-restraint. If I'm gonna be your partner, then I have to trust you no matter what you've done before, so you can make me stronger without me being afraid of you. That's all there is to it." I said firmly, standing and brushing my pajamas out before nodding to where he was and walking back to my room. His voice stopped me as soon as I reached the hallway, and I looked back at him. "Yo squirt, if you have another nightmare, tell Kage. She can manipulate it out of your system." I blinked at this generous statement, then nodded slightly. "Yeah…'night."

"Night squirt."

_DK's POV:_

I sighed, folding my arms behind my head and staring up at the ceiling as my mind drifted randomly, many new thoughts stirred up by my half-pint partner. It had been a while since anyone took a nice long reminiscence from me without A) Upchucking everything on the spot, B) Running for a bathroom or hiding place, or C) Becoming terrified of me for the rest of their life. Hazel had grinned and bore it, so to speak. I closed my eyes with a smirk._ Not bad kid…not bad at all. You've got guts. Not much survival instinct or sanity, but guts._ I sighed, opening my eyes wearily. _Damn…_ I didn't feel tired, but it still seemed proper to sleep right now. But I couldn't. I literally _couldn't_. I had tried every night since Stein and Kage had worked together to give me my own body, and so far I hadn't gotten so much as the metaphorical wink.

"_Damudorakkī ningen_…" I grumbled, sitting up slowly as I worked the kinks out of my relaxed muscles. I slouched off the couch, walking silently down the hallway and opening Hazel's door, seeing her sprawled on her back in the bed, mouth open and drool dangling out of her mouth as her fingers twitched, upper body hanging perilously off the edge of the mattress as I chuckled. _Then again, humans seem to have such stupid expressions in their sleep, I 'spose its nice not to chance looking like that._ I thought wryly, closing the door again and walking to Kage's room across the hall, placing my palm flat against it and sending out a question to Salem, sleeping on her chair. A feline hiss greeted me, and a warning slash at the bottom of the door made me roll my eyes and step away, smirking. Animals and I had an understanding. They don't let me within five feet of them and I don't make the attempt.

We don't get along very well.

Another demon thing.

The more important occurrence was that I didn't hear Kage get up to sooth the snarling ball of fluff, so she wasn't home yet either. And… A soft knock on Akuma's door showed he was not in the residence either, or at least his bedroom. It wasn't very likely with those two to have one without the other, but in this line of business you took unlikely and added a pinch of salt for breakfast. A silent and quick mental look-over for the rest of the apartment confirmed my guess; Kage and her brother were still out doing whatever. I hadn't used the mental sweep on their rooms because I was pretty sure, had they actually been _in_ them, they would've awoken into a full battle-high mode and once put down from _that_, would be extremely grumpy from being woken, two conditions that must be avoided at all costs. Trust me. It was more perilous to your health to have them grumpy from being awakened than to have them running at you in full "ALL MUST DIE" battle rage.

I continued to aimlessly wander through the apartment, picking up things, turning them over and over in my hands, then putting them back and staring out the window. When you don't need to sleep, or even eat, it adds a surprising amount of hours to your "day". On the plus side, this meant Kage and Akuma didn't need to invest in an extremely exhausting and vigorous alarm spell with yours truly over here, all wide awake and ready to guard. On the down side…I was bored out of my tiny demonic mind. I wandered into the bathroom, tracing one sharp nail across the faucet and turning it on, taking a couple slurps of the tasteless water. I glanced up, lifting one hand against the mirror to feel the cold as I stared at the hair-thin line that went from a little to the left of the corner of my mouth and traced up, hitting the opposite corner of my eye and continuing into my hairline, a long grey slash against my right cheek. _It's still there…_

An involuntary shudder racked my body, and I growled softly my thumb putting pressure on the glass beneath my nail as my muscles tensed. _ It is nothing. That life is nothing. I was nothing._ I thought shakily, drawing in a long breath through my nose as I closed my glowing eyes, forcing myself to relax. _**Of course, that's what you'd like to think, isn't it…Gekido. **_"_Jigoku_?!" I whispered, snapping my head back up as I stared at the mirror, the glass shimmering and warping as another version of myself flashed onto the surface, its eyes dead and white. _**Don't deny it. That is a scar that you cannot brush away.**_ It said in an echoing tone, and I gritted my teeth, clenching my fist on the wall. "Shut the hell up and get out of our mirror Mr. _serufushadō_, before I break it into tiny shards." I snarled, and it laughed hollowly, like a banging pot.

_**Can't kill me! I'm part of your sanity and you can't risk getting rid of me! You're in enough trouble as it is! You haven't been taking care of your mind very well and its going to pieces! **_It sang happily, and I growled, tearing my eyes away from it and stalking out the door. "Go dunk your head in a pond and _leave me alone._" I snarled, slamming the bathroom door and stomping over to the couch and throwing my legs up, glaring angrily at the ceiling as I tried to cool down. Ordinarily anger invigorated me, but it also made me want more, and more, to destroy and pillage and cause more anger, and it generally was a very bad cycle to get into, one I tended to avoid if at all possible. _**You can't run away from it…life goes round and round like a merry-go-round… **_Hello annoying self-voice, how are you today? Can't take a hint? Great, I hadn't noticed. "_Kutabare_! GET OUT OF MY HEAD ALREADY!" I roared at the ceiling, shoving a pillow over my face to muffle the sound in retrospect as I groaned, not wanting to chance if Hazel was as snippy being awoken as Kage or Akuma.

_**Can't get it out can't get it out can't get it out can't get it out can't get it out!**_ I snarled, forcing myself out of the world and irritably closing my eyes, irritated beyond belief at my inability to even fall asleep, hearing the voice chant and singsong practically in my ear for at least an hour before it started drifting away, much to my gratitude. I realized dimly that I was actually _falling asleep_, my heart leaping at the sensation as I smiled and sleepily turned over, my fingers tingling as I sent up a barrier around the entire apartment to ward off any incoming busybodies.

_Running, running as fast as I could, my sister streaking ahead of me as blood fell thick and heavy from her chest, her eyes glazing and breath rattling from lack of her soul as I mentally cursed Asura, offering an arm as she took it and held on for dear life, hearing shouts and screams in the woods behind us. Also the sound of rockets, and a deep-voiced bellow accompanied by the __**shhiing**__ of a swung blade that made us run faster, knowing the owner of both voice and blade. "Kutabare kutabare __**kutabare**__! C'mon run faster!" __Kyōfu snarled, yanking her arm out of my grip and streaking forward as I followed, my heart pounding in my chest as she breathed in deeply, inhaling the scent of my fear and growing in strength as I tried to calm the throbbing organ in my chest._

_**It's okay it's okay he can't get us he can't get us it's okay-**_

_SLAM._

_I screamed as I was pinned to the ground by a blade, the tip impaling my shoulder and holding me down as more minions jumped my sister, many losing their lives to her whipping, strangling shadows, but more coming as the one of top of me yanked their blade out, then quickly sliced my other shoulder as I cried out in pain, my arms now practically useless until I ate some souls, and with the way things were turning out- "So then, it is you two. You are the filthy traitors that have sold so many lives to that despicable clan of assassins." The Reaper's voice boomed across the clearing, terrifying, awe-inspiring, and I hissed, writhing frantically under my captor as my sister was pinned down in a similar manner. "Yatte! Get off us!" Kyōfu spat, struggling harder and continuing to curse in Demonic as I bit my lip to hold in screams, the blade waggling dementedly in my should wound as if the human was enjoying my agony. I understood the sentiment, but I really didn't want to die here._

_Really._

_Didn't._

_Want._

_To._

"_DIE DEMONIC SCUM!" I screamed, struggling violently against the foot on my back and the blade transfixing my shoulder as my sister grinned up at the Reaper, roaring the words in his awful voice and swinging the black as night blade past his shoulder, then cleaving it down in a long stroke as I wrenched free of the blade, my left arm bleeding heavily as I scrambled forward, trying to stop this. The human caught me again however, under the arms, as the Reaper paused, looking at me impatiently. "We just wanted to live! Why couldn't we live! Stop it! Leave her alone! She's my sister! She's the only one I have! Stop it! STOP IT!" I screamed as the blade flashed down. I collapsed on my knees, blood spattering the night sky as I stared numbly up at the Reaper, tears starting to pour down my face and mix pink with the blood already there as I started crying. He wrenched the bloody metal free of her face as the person behind me let go, moved back, my weak legs buckling to the ground as I stared up at him._

"_Please…leave me alone…I don't want to die…" I whispered, crawling backwards on my hands as he approached, my own sister's blood dripping off my face with the dried blood from the meisters and witches and weapons that was being soaked by my tears. "I don't want to die! Leave me alone! I don't want to die! Stop it! Please!" I screamed in panic as he ponderously lifted the blade again, and I saw the flat gleam of black beneath his mask as he paused and stared at me again. "So then why did you kill?" I froze, staring up at him like a cornered animal as he grunted and raised the scythe again, a single last tear falling from my eyes. "We just…"_

_SLASH._

_**We just didn't want to be like our parents…**_

_Wet hot blood._

_Bone smashing in._

_Air humid and ground damp._

_Convulsing limbs that grew weaker and slower in their movements._

_Blackness everywhere, everything black, all but the red filling my eyes and soaking my hair…_

I jolted upright with a gasp, my heart hammering almost painfully in my chest as I stared at the far wall, my eyes huge as I felt the sweat soaking my hair and clothes like blood had done so long ago, the memory so strong I could _taste_ my death, all over again. I gingerly felt for my face, letting out a shuddering breath as I felt the thin line that the cut represented, sucking in air slowly and shakily as I reminded myself my skull was intact, I was not dying, and it was most certainly _not_ blood that dampened my skin and hair. _I'm fine…I'm fine…I'm __**fine**__. _I mentally growled to myself, inhaling once more before I thought my respiratory system would work on its own, standing to do something. _Anything._ Eat. Drink. Use the bathroom. Something to remind myself I was still alive.

Maybe sleeping was something I could continue to do without, at least until I got Kage to purge my bad dreams.

_*****__** Damudorakkī ningen- **__**Damned lucky humans.**_

_**I'm just gonna have this be like the demon's natural language or whatever, because one it sounds cool and two I'm gonna need that for reasons I shall explain later, 'cause I'm a jerk. X3 I'm also gonna put the translations down here, so it seems more like a foreign language.**_

_*** Jigoku -The hell?!**_

_*** serufushadō -shadow-self, more or less**_

_*** Kutabare -Extremely naughty demon word that I cannot translate for a T-rated story.**_

_***Yatte- 'nother naughty demon word, but not as bad as kutabare.**_

_**Anyway…is that better? Less black forward/afterward and more writing? I'm tired, so I'm a' posting these and taking a break from Soul Eater for at least a day! *whew* Yeah…Review and whatever, I'm too wiped from this much writing to say even that. Auf Wedersien!**_

_**4.09 PM USA Central Time**_


	13. Piercing Darkness

**_Well then…my friend's trial turned out that she won but her dad still got partial custody, which for us basically means nothing changed._****_ When she told me I was like "No! You know what, you know what, if he wastes the court's time in a trial HE KNOWS HE WILL LOSE, they take it away! He doesn't value his daughter! He just wants to waste time, welll you know what mister, YOU DON'T GET TO WASTE TIME ANYMORE! No custody for you! She ain't your daughter not more, if you don't take it seriously enough." Anyways…oh yeah, instead of the song basis, I'm gonna be putting in quotes from various thingies just below this bolded/italicized section. "A" means anonymous or Internet, names mean characters (usually from animes) and anything else should mean a book title. Got it? Moving on._**

**_December 25, 2013. (Christmas Day)_**

* * *

_We represent a force that could easily defeat an army of a million and one men! It is time for them to awake the ones who sent us screaming into oblivion, and who now lie sleeping. Let's drag them out of bed by the hair, and remind them of what we are! We will remind them of what it feels like to live in fear, we will remind them of the sound our jackboots make against their throats! Friends...let's bring them **hell**._

_-Major_

* * *

_Kage's POV:_

Once we got to the training grounds of the DWMA and made sure nobody else was using the level we were on –a bit extremist, but when Nightstalker fought things tended to get messy– before getting ready to test out what we could do. I stripped myself of my jacket, leaving my arms bare and exposing my brand as Akuma did the same, only without the incriminating moon and shadows on his pale skin. I flexed my legs a couple times, testing out how my jeans would stop movement, then rolled my shoulders and faced off with my brother. _The Black Blood inside us is not active unless __**we**__ activate it…I have a feeling if Queenie and DK were still within us they'd be in control as a third party. Good thing we got rid of them._ I thought absently, watching Akuma through narrowed eyes as we waited for the other to make a move. I transformed my hand into a blade and made a quick cut to my wrist, feeling the blood drip out, oily and cool as I snapped my wrist forward, the black liquid solidifying in an instant and snapping towards my brother in a boomerang-like blade, making him duck as I let the blood relax in my mind, forming a puddle on the ground as we rushed together.

His hand slammed into my sternum as I hardened the thick liquid inside me, stopping most of the force as he growled and delivered a Soul Force, sending me skidding backwards a few feet from the blowback. "Too slow!" I taunted him, whipping and blurring from nothing to something and hacked down on his back, a gigantic spray of Black Blood fountaining up into the air as I moved away, punching his stomach and shocking him away from the puddle on the ground with a blast from my soul. He wiped a thin trickle of blackish liquid from his mouth with his thumb, smirking. "Too confident. Bloody Needle!" he shouted, and I choked as a large cone of darkness rammed through my stomach and came out my back, glaring at him painfully as a shower of sticky black exploded from my lips. "Damn…" I whirled into nothing, the shadows rustling behind me like leaves as I reformed a few meters away from the cone of hardened blood, continuing to cough as my body slowly reknitted its skin, bones, and organs. "Nice one. My turn." I barked, clapping my hands together then slicing my right one all the way up my left, creating another gigantic splash of the black liquid that I hurled at my brother, allowing him to dodge.

Unfortunately for Akuma, that put him right in the path of- "BLOODY NEEDLE!" He yelped, stiffening as dozens of tiny spikes rammed up, across, and through his body, jerking his head to the side to barely avoid one that would've taken out his right eye. He hung there for a moment, leaking blood down the hardened spikes of the same liquid keeping him aloft, then squirmed, melting out of its grip and reforming a few inches clapped his hands together and stretched out a blade of the blood, the liquid twirling in the air as he caught it and surged towards me, sliding into my blind spot and shoving the spike clear through my leg, the Black Blood wrapping around it in semi-liquid form so it was impossible to get off. I growled, standing on my weak leg and lashing my foot out, my silver-tipped heel catching him in the chin as he was sent tumbling back, cracking his skull against a tree trunk as I Soul Forced the band of blood around my leg, causing it to rupture and blow away. "C'mon big bro. Hit me harder." I taunted, stepping forward as the blood slowly dripping down my calves and knees spiked through my clothing, leaving an armor-like casing of razor sharp spikes around that particular leg.

He wiped the tiny trickle of blood away from his mouth again with the back of his hand, smirking. "Ready to oblige." he shot back, whirling into nothing as shadows whipped out of everywhere and nowhere, his hand impacting me solidly in the small of my back as at least twenty small spikes of blood shot through my torso from the blood covering his palm, thicker spikes of shadow blasting up through my legs as I choked, the oily black liquid filling my mouth as it sprayed out my mouth. "_Oshī!_" I spat, grinning as shadows whirled around him in turn and locked him down, the Black Blood binding his limbs tightly in razor-sharp ropes as he swallowed hard, my spiky leg resting calmly on his throat. "I win." I said calmly, and he smirked, chuckling and closing his eyes as I followed, laughing wildly at each other, bloody, smears of shadows and darkness left all over the grass. "Damn! I _love_ this stuff!" I shouted giddily, catching his hand and swinging him up as his bonds melted away, my spiky coating and shadows relaxing and sliding back to the ground as he high fived me, grinning. "Yeah! And this was just manipulating, think of how much easier it's going to be to beat DK and the others when we can harden it!" he crowed back, and we laughed for a few moments, scaring robins and sparrows out of the trees covering our heads.

"Oy! CRACKHEADS!"

We turned as one, seeing Lock waving frantically from the edge of the trees, several of the new kids who got brought along with Hazel staring at us, looking slightly green. I whistled back merrily, and she rolled her eyes as we approached, summoning my jacket and shrugging it on as Akuma did the same. "So then, I never did get the names of our other new arrivals." I said lazily as we came even, and all four gulped, even the young one. Lock sighed in unison with me. "Kage, this is Rowan, Berry, Linden, and Birch. Guys, this is Kage, you know her already." I narrowed my eyes, studying them.

Rowan had bright green eyes not unlike my own, however his hair was a dull brown and his nose was turned up at an angle that suggested the world at large was BENEATH him. His soul was green as well and it told me this "Rowan" guy was a meister, and a snobby one at that. Birch was tucked in between him and Linden in a way that suggested she was trying to hide, her china blue eyes nervous and frightened behind her curtain of pale blonde bangs. Her anxiously pulsing soul was that of a witch, with little cat ears, making me perk up a little. 'Well, one's a cat at least.' I thought dryly, glancing to the next one. This guy was the one meister that exposed us as Nightstalker, his eyes covered by a dirty strip of cloth and his hair a bone white, one long hand resting nervously on the shoulder of Birch, the cat witch. His other rested lightly on the shoulder of one "Berry", the youngest of them all. Her hair was dyed a bright cobalt blue, her eyes a vivid shade of violet.

A Weapon.

A weapon not unlike Tsubaki.

Hmm…

"So then, anything to say? C'mon, don't be shy, I don't bite." I said in a friendly way, smiling at them cheerfully. "Much." Akuma added in a cough, and I elbowed him. "I only bite YOU." I said ominously, and there was a muffled giggle, from Berry. The others relaxed a little, and Linden took his hand off Berry's shoulder. "Can you teach us to fight like that? You were incredible!" Rowan said eagerly, his green eyes shining with avarice as I glanced sidelong at Akuma. "Nah, we'd crush you to the dirt. But c'mon then, have at me. I promise, no Black Blood, no special, just me as a Nightstalker and all you as you." I said slyly, and Linden quickly backed away, nervous. "I c-can't see-" he stammered, and I rolled my eyes. "You can see my soul can't you? When you fight someone like me, that comes in handy. Now hurry up before I get bored and decide to crunch you." I said menacingly, falling into a ready crouch.

_Lock's POV:_

After showing the leftover losers around the places they were allowed to go, Barrel and Shock had been called out on a possible collection round, leaving me to take the brats to the DWMA. Once we arrived -I could pull the "infinite shadow vortex" like Kage on important occasions- I saw the smoke coming from the grounds and figured my best friends were busy training. Since our beloved greenhorns needed some schooling, I took them on over. Rowan was mercifully silent, and both Birch and Berry's eyes were huge as they took in the dueling pair, and Linden's hand was in a vise around the latter's shoulder.

"They…they're going to teach us to fight like _that_?" Rowan asked after a few moments, his green eyes wide. "Not exactly. Kage and Akuma are a level all their own." I said calmly, and they all glanced at me questioningly. I sighed, leaning against a tree and watching them fight through hooded eyes. "Kage and Akuma were born to a normal enough family as Nightstalker go, nice fighters, good strategists. What happened when they turned six was what really changed things." They waited with baited breath and wide eyes. "They accidentally awoke both the Nightmare Queen and the Demon King, two powerful demons that our religious icon, the Pumpkin King, had locked away. During the process of possession, the fiancé of Jack, our leader, came upon them. She was slaughtered."

Their eyes widened until they were huge orbs just begging to be poked. "That was it as far as the clan was concerned. Kage and Akuma were no longer part of our kindred. There was a mob, it beat them both until the point of death. Akuma was actually dead, truly dead, when they stopped to take consideration. Kage was barely alive, and they branded her an outcast and then literally threw her out the gates. She found her brother's body and used her new power to resurrect him. Jack expected, we ALL expected, that they would die in the wilderness, alone."

"But wouldn't someone have like found them, took care of them?" Birch asked, and I shook my head at her. "The land for _miles_ around was controlled by us. It still is. There was nothing but forest and Kishin out there for them to find. But somehow, someway, they both got out. Not just survived, but got out. They actually managed to leave the forest, run a few miles, and then collapse at the edge of a town. We had an agent there, she saw them. By that time they had been healed, rested, and they were healthy and completely unharmed. Jack was furious. He sent out orders to every Witch and Kishin he knew, that we knew, that if Kage and Akuma were spotted they were to be killed on sight, by pain of death. The reward was either as many souls as you could eat with proof of death, or at least a coven's worth of power from our city."

Kage activated a Black Blood attack. "So that was it. Kage and Akuma were now the most wanted of the criminal world. They had to keep moving, never staying in one spot for more than an hour. Every day something tried to kill them. Sometimes more than once per day. It's frankly a miracle they survived for more than a few weeks. They would have died for sure if not for their demons. Even then, it was one close shave after another. They came crawling to our door plenty of times, half dead, and once we stitched them up they'd fade back into the night. Eventually they started eating the souls of the ones who came after them, grew in strength, and started being a problem. Jack himself joined in personally on the chase, and around that time they must've started heading to the DWMA. I think they were in Holland at the time, so it was several months, almost a year, before they could get to the academy."

Linden whistled under his breath. "Incredible." I nodded. "Yeah, it was. After that, a whole mess started up, and through it all, Jack was killed, our deity was imprisoned, Kage lost the Nightmare Queen, and Akuma separated from the Demon King. You know that guy with the black hair, dark clothing, red eyes, hangs out with them? That's the Demon King in his new body. We prefer to call him DK for short. But the upside is, Kage and Akuma are now more vastly powerful than all of us combined. Outcast or not, they have a large part to play if we're going to rebuild the clan. But there's a slight problem with that, as you all can guess. As outcasts, Kage and Akuma can neither be candidates for our next leader nor have any say once the leader is elected on whether or not we still maintain friendly ties with the academy. Me and my brothers originally had very little say in what went on, and we probably won't when the leader is chosen, unless it's one of us."

"But the new leader, they can let Kage and her brother back in the clan, right?" Berry asked, hanging onto Birch's sleeve. I bit my lip. "Maybe. Maybe not. They will be a powerful re-addition to our ranks, but Kage is involved with Lord Death's son, Death the Kid. They know a lot of the meisters here by name. The politics of their relations are something that no matter what happens, someone will protest. The decision won't be an easy one." I said worriedly, seeing my best friend laugh, tossing her bloody hair out of her eyes.

**_*Nice try!_**


	14. Lockdown

_**Next X-mas chapter! Little helpful before-something, Arro's name is pronounced R-O. Like Jell-O, only with an R.**_

_**December 25, 2013, (Christmas Day)**_

* * *

_"The one thing worse than death is to avert your eyes from it. Look straight at the people you kill. Don't take your eyes off them for a second. And don't ever forget them, because I promise that they won't forget you."_

_-Solf J. Kimblee_

* * *

_Kage's POV:_

They were very hesitant, and I growled in frustration, readying a shadow from the ground to goad them into movement. Suddenly Rowan darted toward me, his hand glowing with the familiar crackle of a Soul Force, and I sighed, leaning into the solid hit as his eyes went wide, feeling the sensation of a basketball hitting a steel wall as the blood in my abdomen hardened, stopping almost all of the physical force. He quickly fired off the Soul Force, making my head snap back as I was sent backwards, my stance exactly the same as before, little furrows leading from my previous spot to my feet as his eyes widened. "Not bad kid, not bad at all." I said truthfully, narrowing my eyes at the soft crunch of leaves behind me. "Mew mew meow meow mew 'mow mew! SABER TEETH!" I grunted as a force slammed me to the ground, melting away and reforming to see a spiky, cat-like creature that was glowing a faint gold, it's light blue "skin" shaped in short, deadly spikes, much like a Black Blood attack. "Tch…A Witch and a Meister don't make a team. Where's the rest of you? Where are your allies? A battle is won by multiplicity, not strength." I told them condescendingly, shaking out my tingling arms.

I was suddenly warned by a soft breath of air, tucking into a roll and coming to my feet as the air above my head was sliced in two, Linden stepping back nervously as the small spear in his hand twitched a little, the blue-haired girl staring at me with her small purple eyes. "_She's got the reflexes of a **panther**_!" I grinned, moving to knock the meister's legs out from under him as he hurriedly jumped back, looking panicked. "And the muscles to come with it!" I chuckled, whipping around to block the swipe of the Saber Cat, it's spiky paw cutting deeply into my wrist as Black Blood began to flow down. "Now children…what should you never do with someone who has Black Blood? _Bleeding only makes me stronger._" I purred, and they all screamed in shock as the pillars hit them, my mind carefully controlling the blows so they hurt, but would do no lasting damage.

They slowly came to their feet, panting and staring at me in vacant shock. "When the Cat hit her…it was like my magic was made of _paper_." Birch whispered in shock, and I chuckled as the blood dripped slowly down my hand. "My hand still hurts from when I tried to attack her with the Soul Force." Rowan grumbled, shaking it out as I smirked a little wider. "_Even with Linden's special pinpoint accuracy we still didn't even **scratch** her…_" Berry whimpered, and as one they breathed "What the hell are you?" I began to laugh, chuckling to myself for a few mental seconds before abruptly stopping. "What I am, children, is the results of centuries of depraved humans and desolate spirits all working towards ultimate power. Every aspect of me has been enhanced to be stronger, faster, smarter, MORE. This is the path we are leading you onto. Be warned, once you take that final step and relinquish your human soul, there is no turning back. A Nightstalker can never again regain that which makes us human. This is the price of our strength." I said softly, and they all looked down, as if mulling over that.

"Lock, please take them around the school. Lord Death deserves to see the possible new students he has, and they can decide if they want to stay here or come with us." Rowan and Linden both looked slightly shocked at that, and I chuckled. "What, you think we're going to press-gang you into the clan? Unwilling members are worse than no members at all, so why on earth would we force you? We would very much appreciate it, but then again it is your humanity. Giving it away is a very big life decision. You guys have about two or three months to make it; All new members are sworn in on Halloween night. The new leader will be chosen that night as well." I said, musing after them as Lock started leading them away. "So…what do you think?" I asked empty air, and Akuma sighed as he dropped out of the tree he had used to watch the match. "Rowan will stay if he thinks we're the strongest there is. He's got a lot of ambition and pride to match it. Birch will stay if her friends do, same as Berry. Linden is the telling point; if the two males stay, the two females will as well. He's also the one with the least amount of motivation to stay with us." he said, and I sighed. "Of course…so then, let's hope he decides to stay with us."

_***Time Skip***_

"Oy…watch where yer sitting girly." I bared my teeth at the drunkard as he scowled at me, my shoulders tense as the stench of beer and unwashed bodies washed over my sensitive nose. I whistled softly, and soon enough an old woman hobbled up to the stool, her left eye hidden by a ragged strip of cloth, repeating the whistle back to me. "Aye then girly, what's the business?" she croaked, and I swallowed a long draft of the contents of my mug, then wiped my lips with the back of my hand. "Kidnapping. A bunch of out-clanners taken in by some organization run by people in white labcoats, right in the Thousand-Dead territory." As a Nightstalker, it was both morbidly amusing and mockingly repentant to name a certain area after past crimes committed in it, the "Thousand-Dead" a clan of humans DK had taken out a few centuries back. "Took 'em in to maybe broaden our gene pool. Problem is, they don't know who caught them, eh? So that's where the informants come in. We got a bunch, Weapons, Witches, Meisters, all of 'em locked in for maybe two to three years in a base in the woods. Think you can work with that?"

She snickered at me, showing lots of missing teeth. "You're an unfaithful wench! On so much information? Consider it done ducky." She pinched my cheek fondly and waddled off into the crowd. "Hent. Informants are so friendly…" I muttered in annoyance, sipping again at my drink as another was slammed down next to me. "Hey there beautiful, this spot filled up?" I glanced to the side, seeing a young, thin kid with black hair and dark clothes. His eyes were an intriguing dark grey with a friendly sparkle to them, his lips set slightly in an inviting smile. I shrugged silently, letting him perch on the stool next to mine. "All alone are you?" I glared at him. "My brother's here too, and you don't want the trouble it'll take to con me." I snapped, and he held up his hands defensively as I tried to stifle a smirk. I was getting to like this guy. "Whoa whoa, don't bite my nose off! I was just interested in-" His voice suddenly got dark as I felt a familiar tingle of danger. "An outcast such as yourself, _Nightstalker_." Shadows were whipping at my hands, but suddenly an arm was wrapped around my throat from behind and something reeking familiarly of chloroform was shoved down my throat, making me instantly black out.

_***Time Skip***_

I came around, slowly, to find myself bound to a chair, inside a room that was covered all over with ocean-blue tiles, the chair in the center of a pentacle mosaic. My jacket was gone, baring my arms and shoulders to the world and showing the pale brand on my upper left shoulder. I was bound in a combination of normal ropes and some kind of cuff, the metal a strange blue-tinted steel…I hoped. Otherwise I has no clue what it might be. "So, this is the famous Kage, Demonmeister. You're taller than I expected." My eyes narrowed as I saw the same young man from the bar I had been kidnapped in waltz lazily into the room, a riding crop dangling from his hand. Gone was the simple black clothing; now he wore a full nobleman's outfit, complete with ornate chains and expensive fabric, a ridiculous hat perched on his silky black hair.

"What are you exactly? No NORMAL human would wear such _ridiculous_ clothing even in the sanctity of his own lair. This _is_ your lair I assume." I said calmly as he approached, stopping at the very edge of the mosaic as he grinned at me ferally, then stepped over. "You're also just as clever as they say. Yes, I am not human. You may call me Arro." he said slyly, tilting my chin up with the riding crop. "Mm. And what _exactly_ possessed you, Arro, to kidnap me? Aside from my own vengeance, my friends and family are all nothing to be trifled with. The instant your guard slips even a little, you are as good as dead. " I replied, tilting the chair back a little to move my chin away from the leather as I stared him straight in the eye, hearing a slight chuckle as his eyes gleamed at me, still inviting, but much more dangerously so. They weren't friendly at all now either, glittering with unseen purpose and slight insanity.

He meant business.

"Because I am confident, Kage, that they will be no match against me. Look how easily you yourself fell into my hands, and you are the most powerful of them all. Even though the…_misunderstanding_…left you clanless." he chuckled, his soft fingertip gently touching my scar as I flinched, the skin throbbing a warning as his eyes grew wide and he pulled his hand back, grinning insanely at me as he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped off the offending finger, as if I had dirtied it. I felt a strong urge to spit on his face, just to see what he would do. "Yeah…_so_? I can tell them a million miles away what happened." I snapped, and he laughed, putting the scrap of lacy fabric back in his pocket. "Go on, try. Try anything." he said smugly, and I frowned, mentally flexing my will to tell the shadows to move. Nothing. Not even a flicker. Slightly startled, I tried again, reaching out for the tiny mental thread I shared with Akuma, only to find it neatly snipped in half, as were all my connections to my family, Kid, and even my meister friends.

I was utterly and completely alone.

But I was not afraid.

I wasn't.

I _**wasn't**_.

"I'm impressed Arro. I haven't run across this thorough a spell in…four months." I said quietly, and he grinned wider. "Ah! You mean Jack's attempt to seal you away? That was a masterpiece. I've taken a few things here and there from it to form your helix. So then, do you want to know why you are here?" he said proudly, and I shrugged soundlessly. The best way to deal with his type of person was to let them boast and ramble until they revealed something fatal. His grin was back, and he slowly reached up and tilted my head back, as if exposing my throat for execution as he trailed the riding crop across it. "I'm going to find out everything there is to know about you. I'm going to kill you until you're almost dead. I'm going to break you until you're almost shattered. I want to know about your kind, Kage the Nightstalker. And I'm going to do that by dissecting you until you're nothing more than the failed experiment you really are." he purred, and I growled faintly as he laughed and suddenly let me go, walking away without a second glance in my direction.

"Pleasant Nightmares!"

_**Ooh a new character! How exciting for you guys! *evil grin* Arro, kidnapper of awesome people and non-human mystery spy-eavesdrop-knows-all guy. If you already aren't precisely "fond" of him, that's intentional, he's **supposed** to be a jerk.**_


	15. Heart of Matters

_**Alrighty then people, let's get down to business! *cracks knuckles* This was like my best Christmas EVER! I got from Grandma's:**_

_**$40 gift card for Amazon**_

_**$40 in paper money**_

_**$10 Barnes & Noble gift card**_

_**Soul Eater Book 17**_

_**A necklace and earrings.**_

_**I got (On X-mas):**_

_**Hellsing book 1, 2, & 3**_

_**Wizard101 membership**_

_**Which was converted on the 26 into:**_

_**$40 gift card for Amazon**_

_**Hellsing Books 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8.**_

_**Drifters (new manga I'm reading by the same author as Hellsing) 1 & 2**_

_**So yeah, I am HAPPY with my Christmas haul. And wait; there is something else...which is the best of all. Ladies and gentlemen of the court, I HAVE GOTTEN A BRAND NEW LAPTOP! No lie! It's my first ever, and I am currently typing on it for this chapter. The software is a bit newer than our old family computer, so I'm still getting used to it. *gingerly touches computer, then yeeps and jumps back* Yeesh, I'm listening/watching an episode of Castle (crime show about a writer who follows a cop around) and it is so creepy! I actually turned on the light! I NEVER do that! But yeah, anyway, on with the show.**_

_**December 27, 2013.**_

* * *

_Darkness, evil, and inhumanity are all really a matter of perspective. A hare with think a hawk evil, a hawk will think an eagle evil, and an eagle will think a wolf evil. It is merely a matter of opposition. Humans are all opposing of each other, so therefore they are evil to other humans. "I am not the same as you" is the sole motivation for any and all atrocities committed in this mortal world.  
__-A_

* * *

_Kage's POV:_

So then…after lord creeps-a-lot left me to my own devices, I began thinking. Two things were immediately clear.

One, I was in deep trouble.

Two, I was REALLY in deep trouble.

I had never before in my life been so thoroughly trapped by an enemy…not even when Jack had sealed me in the spell with the Pumpkin King. Then at least, I wasn't even truly aware. Now everything was depressingly real, including the ever helpful though of: _I'm so screwed…_I sighed, leaning back in my chair. "Damnit all to hell…stupid bar…stupid chloroform… stupid Arro with his stupid clever spells…stupid-" I began monologuing, scooting the chair back as I kicked at the floor. Maybe if I got myself out of this pentacle inlay…nope. I let the chair fall back again with a sigh as I cleared the mosaic, not even a flutter of my former power returning to me. Well, there was a reason why we trained to perform just in case our powers were either lost or useless, and hey, I was pretty much in that scenario. Badabing badaboom.

I wiggled my fingers, getting ready to pick the lock on my cuffs…only to find_ it wasn't there_. There was no nice, convenient, normal lock that an ordinary kidnapper would generously use; Arro had to be sneaker than that. The cuffs were just two, perfectly normal, shiny bracelets made of thick metal that held in all magical and otherwise power, and kept me from screaming out of there like a banshee out of a farmhouse. _Probably sealed with magic._ In which case, I was in essence…helpless. Not a good feeling. I sighed, squirming a little as I continued to try and at least put up a token resistance. I knew what game he was playing, Queenie had played it often on me and many other people, sometimes fatally. (Although obviously not to me).

The victim is spoken to, usually via boasting, using veiled threats to nudge them into a fearful and slightly wary state of mind. Leave area. Watch the victim as they struggle, and slowly realize they cannot escape their bonds/captor. Wait until a state of resignation and fear sets in, then act. Dominate. Bully. Cow. Pound them into submission. Torture them. Then wait again and let them heal just a bit. Watch as they muse over their fate and start to fear, truly fear, their oppressor. Repeat until the victim is clearly under your control. Then toy with them at your leisure. Torture them brutally for three days then leave them alone for a month. Bully them every other day for a week and then vanish. Keep them uncertain and guessing, always guessing, never knowing when you might show up and bring more pain. It was the fastest and most easy way to break a person's mind and spirit, but I smirked, raising my head defiantly. _This isn't going to work for you "Arro". I __**invented**__ mental terrorism._ I thought with a chuckle, grinning defiantly at where I imagined his smug, insane face to be.

That done, I began musing. For one thing, it unnerved me slightly that it was so very easy for this creep to catch me, both unawares and literally. It was also unnerving that I was faced with an enemy of unknown powers and intent, one who also seemed to be interested in Nightstalker and who also probably had experience dealing with us, as classified with how very thorough the spell on me was. I bit my lip, trying to think. _He was easily able to hide-no, it was a camouflage. There's no way I wouldn't even have noticed a Soul Protect, no matter how expert he is. The discoloration would've tipped me off instantly._ I thought, rubbing a finger against one of the carved sigils on my cuffs absently. Soul Protects, no matter how competent, always left a sheen around the soul they were concealing. For instance, for my orange soul, it would leave a film of light red. For a normal human soul, it would change it to purple. The actual spell itself, if viewed from a significantly powerful pair of eyes, basically surrounded the creature or soul in a maroon-purplish bubble, like a bruise, hiding it from sight, but also exposing itself as something wanting to hide. It was like trying to conceal yourself under a blanket; you yourself are hidden from view, but what you are hiding under incriminates you.

It merely meant that the more skilled you were, if you adapted it to a certain form, the red-purple tinge would only lighten, become less prominent. Arro's soul had been a clear, ice blue, not tinged with even the faintest _pink_, much less red. He had mostly likely used a camouflage, like we ourselves used, which instead of covering the soul, w_arped_ it. For instance, I was partially meister, and partially weapon, so I bent the output my soul was giving, like placing shards of mirror in a maze to reflect and confuse, thus making it seem as if I was _only_ meister and weapon, not all the rest. The meister trying to read my soul would be rapidly bounced about these shards, giving the illusion of a whole, unsuspect soul. So far in the several hundred years we had gone about our existence, it had held. But on to more pressing matters. Arro was able to catch me off my guard, sneak past my senses, and hold me captive in a way I was certainly beginning to dislike. This was not a novice I was dealing with, and before I knew it, still spinning uneasy conclusions, I was out for the count.

_Hazel's POV:_

I woke up the next morning, stumbling down the hallway to see DK calmly flipping pancakes, his face turned away from me. "Heads up squirt." I managed to blearily look up, then squeaked and caught the plate flying towards my face, flinching as there was a slapping sound and tilting it to see a fluffy brown pancake placed in the exact center. I shuffled to the table, sitting down and wishing silently they didn't make so much _noise_ in the mornings. A large glass of orange juice slammed down next to my plate, a bottle of syrup and some butter being tossed beside me. Something clicking within my sluggish, tired brain, I looked up, seeing my partner practically throw himself into the chair opposite me and chomp –not bite, not munch, but _chomp_– savagely down on a glowing blue soul. "Wassa wrong with you?" I slurred, and he jerked his head up, then scowled and sourly gulped another soul down. "Kage vanished trying to find information last night. Akuma tried calling on a phone, telepathically, through their link, looking for her soul, talking through the informants we have, and it all came up dead. He;s still out looking for her, but it's like she was caught by a ghost." he growled, and I spit out my orange juice as I started to take a gulp, the spray soaking his face and the soul about to be devoured in his hand.

He gave me a withering look, a shadow whisking my napkin away as he caught it and grumpily wiped his face off as I stared at him, stunned. "What!? She was looking for who captured us?! What happened!? Is she gonna be okay?!" I stammered, and he waited for the barrage of words to stop, chewing the next soul thoughtfully before swallowing it with a sigh. "Yes, she was looking for the person or people that altered you and your friends. I mean, you honestly expect us that they kept you for three years, children from almost the same town, and you all suddenly turn out to have advanced capabilities? Artillery weapons are rarer than you might expect." he explained coolly, picking lazily at his black nails. "The informant she asked said that she was sitting alone and the drink she had was from a common source, the barkeep someone she personally trusted. Once our woman left, Kage was seen with a young man with black hair, and after that it's like nobody saw anything. Someone said a barfight was going on and most people were watching it instead of the exits. But having black hair and being a guy is a rather common condition, one I myself am a victim of. And I know that unless the creep had several dozen Great Old Ones in his pockets, there was no way he could've taken Kage by force. Subterfuge was obviously used." he explained, tilting a mug of something I was hesitant to identify down his throat. It smelled unpleasantly of blood.

"And as for her being okay, this is Kage we're talking about. This guy gets kudos for managing to catch her unawares once and hiding her somewhere, but the day Kage is completely and utterly beaten and/or gotten one over on, I swear I will bloody kiss you." he chuckled, and I squeaked and blushed, covering my mouth with my hands. He smirked at me. "Of course, that's less likely than the sun coming up black and in the west. You aren't gonna need demon-centric pepper spray anytime soon." he added mischievously, and I glared at him, covering my smile with my glass of orange juice. "I hate you." I reminded him, and he lazily stuck out his tongue as my eyes widened, the appendage long and pointy and most certainly too wriggly for a human as he grinned, snaking it at me as I squealed and jerked back, laughing as he withdrew it back into his mouth. "How…how does that even fit?" I managed to squeak, and he shrugged, putting his hands behind his head. "How the hell should I know? It feels normal when I eat, and when I walk around. It just gets really long once it's out of my mouth. Demon thing." he muttered with a little shrug, grinning at me as he opened his eyes again. "And it's only a tongue ya scaredycat." I replied by sagely dumping my orange juice on his head and marching back to my room, where it was safe from tongue-wiggling demonic jerks.

_Kage's POV:_

"Ngh…hnt!" I flinched away from the annoyingly bright light next to my eye, and it was turned off as Arro moved away, his thin lips set in a cruel smile. "Rise and gloom Kage. I have a present for you." he said smugly, and the corner of my lips twitched up. "Let me guess that it isn't a key to the cuffs and a map to the exit?" I asked mockingly, and he shook his head, still smirking cruelly. I nodded with a sigh, looking around. This new room was also in a stunning, _boring_ ocean blue, tiles instead of wood or carpeting, the ropes and chair gone but my lovely cuffs still there, clipped onto some sort of hanging mechanism with an escape-proof padlock on it. My feet were hanging inches above the ground, unrestricted, a similar, but not quite the same pentagram below them. Arro broke me from my thoughts with a shrill whistle, and I narrowed my eyes at the invitingly open door across the room, directly in front of me.

This didn't look good.

I raised an eyebrow as a sickly, pale Kishin wobbled into the room, Arro smirking now like a feral demon as it came to a halt by his feet. "A pet?" I asked dully, knowing what was going to come next and humoring the sociopath as he chuckled, shaking his head as he raised a finger, pointing it to me. "Feed." he said simply, and the creature snuffled once, looking to me and cocking its head. " 'Sup kid." I said, flicking one of my bound hands in a friendly gesture as it crawled closer, still with its head cocked. Suddenly it seemed to make a decision, and my eyes widened as the tiny, pale creature swelled, becoming lanky and dark-skinned as it launched forward, the teeth sinking deep into my throat as claws met my legs, scrabbling at them viciously as the Kishin's clawed hands wrapped around my shoulderblades, piercing the skin there and drawing blood as I was crushed against the bone-hard chest, gargling a little as my own blood gushed into my mouth from the punctured lungs.

Suddenly the creature keened, falling back as I smirked, blood pooling at my feet as it dripped down my body, one feral red eye taken by the spike of Black Blood attached to my throat, one that slowly wavered and dripped back down to the ground. The Kishin screeched and charged, only to gargle, spikes of Black Blood puncturing its heart, lungs, and bowels, exploding into ribbons of darkness that wrapped around a floating, glowing red soul, one I hungrily gazed at, but knew better than to try and grab for it. The black spikes quickly relaxed back into pools of blood, and Arro slowly approached. "What's the point of that? You knew nothing so mediocre as a _Kishin_ would be able to even hurt ME." I said simply as he neared, and he smirked icily. "The funny thing about that is-"

_Gsk!_

He stopped dead, a spike of blackness stretching from the pool of blood up throat his chest, the tip passing through his clothes to poke out his back, impaling his heart. My face was set, a small trickle of blood slipping down my chin to _plip_ on the stained blue tiles. His eyes were vacant, his mouth open slightly, his weight hanging on the spike supporting his corpse. My eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed as his slack mouth tightened, smirking, and his lolling head swung back up as his dangling limbs regained control. "Are you quite done?" he asked with a smug smile, and in answer I smirked back, withdrawing the Black Blood as he dusted himself off. "As I was saying before you interrupted me, the funny thing about your statement was; I have no intention of killing you. None at all. I want you alive." he said with another smirk, brushing my brand with one finger. I spat in his face, his eyes narrowing just a bit, then unfocusing, going up a little as his mouth went slack a little, going unanimated once more.

As I waited, his eyes focused again, and he smirked again, shaking his head. "Spitting the Blood on me and then using it to punch through my brain. You are even more incredibly dogged than I expected. Word of advice?" He leaned in close, and I absently realized I couldn't feel his breath on my cheek, although his face was inches from mine. "_I can't die._ No matter how many times you kill me, I can't die. I want you to remember that for further consideration." he said ominously, patting my head a few times and then turning away, walking out the door. I smirked after him, my lips bloody and my body slowly healing, bones reknitting and muscles combining as the slow blood flow gradually halted. "Wrong buddy…you _can_ die. You just…don't stay dead. In which case…when the time comes…I'm going to have to keep killing you until you stay dead." I panted softly, chuckling to myself as I swilled the bitter liquid in my mouth around and spat it out, ignoring the small worry in my mind.

_What kind of creature doesn't even bleed when I puncture his chest? I didn't see a speck on his clothes or his face after I sent the spike through his brain…_

_**Uh…that's really all from me. Happy Holidays and everything, hope you got the same cool sort of stuff I did. Review Request Rcomment Auf Wedersien!**_

_**8.39 PM USA Central Time**_


	16. Blackness

_**So then…how are ya guys? I'm fine, thanks for asking even though you didn't. I have several requests from the great beyond by the characters, and I am working on it. Thus, here we go.**_

_**December 29 2013**_

* * *

_The magical power Witches possess is a vast reserve of almost limitless energy. In the end, powerful energy always leads to one thing...destruction. **Destruction is the pull of magic. Witches are dominated by that instinct.**_

_-Soul Eater Book 13_

* * *

_Hazel's POV:_

Akuma had stumbled in a few hours after breakfast, and now DK was sitting next to me, arms folded. Akuma was pacing back and forth, cell phone held to his ear. "So…is anyone gonna tell me what's going on?" I asked hopefully, and DK started and looked up. "Huh? Oh yeah, you don't know the standard procedure. Well, we managed to find several possible bases and after Akuma leaves a message for Kid about Kage we're gonna shadow-walk there and kick some ass." he explained smugly, doing a fistpump as Akuma straightened, muttering rapidly into the phone as he walked into the kitchen. "So…who do you think it was that took Kage?" I asked, and he shrugged silently. "I dunno. For the eight Great Old Ones, we have Asura, Lord Death, Kage, myself, Vajra, and Eibon. Madness through Madness, Order, Fear, Rage, and whatever Vajra possessed. I can never remember what the other two were, although I vaguely remember Excalibur might have been one of them." he said as he picked at his nails, and I blinked at him. "What do the Great Old Ones have to do with it?"

He gave me a weary look from under his bangs. "Because only a Great Old One or a creature as powerful as a Great Old One could _possibly_ hold Kage for any length of time, and even then they'd have to struggle for it." he barked, and I swallowed hard. "W-what happens if it's something that can hold her easily?" I stammered, and he paled slightly, doing a subtle movement I recognized as a cross, only backwards, on his chest. "Stake me to a wall, I don't want to know. We better hope there isn't even such thing as something that strong." he whispered, and I swallowed and nodded, even mimicking the movement in my worry as Akuma exited the kitchen, pocketing the phone. "C'mon guys. Let's go." he muttered, and I gritted my teeth, allowing DK pull me into the soft vacuum of darkness with him.

_***Time Skip***_

"Alright Hazel, here's how we do this. Akuma busts in, and we destroy anything in our path until we find Kage. If she isn't here, we move somewhere else. So on and so forth. If there are other hostages, they can fend for themselves. This is Search, Destroy, and Rescue. No prisoners, no mercy. You do NOT mess with Nightstalker." DK told me softly, shifting slightly beside me on the tree as I watched Akuma slowly walk up to the box-shaped building. "But-" His black-red eyes shifted to me, and I saw the dangerous gleam of bloodlust shining within them. "No buts. Lock and load kid." he said with a grin, and I stifled a squeak as a shadow jabbed me sharply in the pressure point he had discovered, fluidly shifting as I felt myself lengthen and narrow, scooped up with a long-nailed hand as DK fell from the tree, whipping in and out of shadow as he zoomed into the building, the confusion of light and dark making my stomach churn.

_DK's POV:_

I whooshed into being, seeing several doctors in uniforms fleeing down the hallway, hauling the protesting Hazel to my shoulder and squeezing off four rapid bursts, twisting out of being before they connected and dropping down the side of an elevator shaft, landing on the boxy construction itself and aiming downward, firing again as Hazel squeaked, the metal roof giving out below us. I dropped gently, walking forward quickly and shadow-shifting through the doors, preferring not to let her see the bloody, gorey floor we had left behind, the unlucky person (or persons, since there were no remaining, whole parts to tell) who had been using the elevator having been thoroughly silenced. I grinned at the platoon of soldiers, pulling Hazel up again and firing, her protests mercifully stopped.

_DK…why are we killing everyone?_ She finally asked, her voice timid, and I mentally sighed, even as I bounced and refracted off a wall and blew off a marauding soldier's head with a well-placed shot._ Come with the sales territory kid. Nightstalker ideals and morals are infinitely more flexible than a normal person's; survival of the fittest and honor amongst thieves is a primary example. These people wanted to hit us, so we hit them back even harder. Nightstalker lived through several hundred years where every last meister, Kishin, and witch had a bone to pick with us and we were hunted like rats. Our methods now reflect the fact that we don't want that to** ever happen again**. Got it? _I asked, running along the wall and rapid-firing as the wall in front of me was painted red, shadow-flipping through some locked doors as I began shooting some huddled scientists, my expression blank.

_Yeah but why does killing everyone-_ I sighed in exasperation, shaking my head as I paused and flipped her up against my shoulder._ Killing everyone shows that even attempting to hurt us, kill us, or capture us is tantamount to suicide. Once you're found, we come and exterminate you like cats on mice. Kage and Akuma ma not truly be part of the clan, and I may just a demon, but we hold by Nightstalker ways. We've survived off of them long enough; it's a tried and true method._ I told her mentally, turning as Akuma caught up. "Yo. What's the scoop?" I asked, watching him pant a few moments before answering. "All the other levels have been taken care of. There's only this one and the next and then we're out of here." he wheezed, and I narrowed my eyes, blanketing the area in a fog of Rage as Akuma swore and clutched at his forehead, wincing. "_Yatte_! DK DO YOU HAVE TO DO THAT?!" he bellowed, and I grinned, making a calming motion with my free hand.

"Calm yourself oh master of your temper. I'm just looking for Kage." I admitted cheerfully, finding nothing on this level, but powerful magic below. _Well, let's see what's what._ I thought wickedly, withdrawing the Rage wavelength as Akuma rubbed his temples, growling. "_Are you okay?_" Hazel asked worriedly from the stock of her gun, and I made a dismissive motion as Akuma weakly smiled. "Yeah. He's just more susceptible to my madness-drawing wavelength then most because he was my host, and as such extremely vulnerable to Rage." I reassured her, and he nodded rapidly before summoning shadows to use as swords, watching me aim her for the floor. "Knock knock." I muttered, squeezing the trigger as a huge _BOOM_ of sound filled the air, coughing a little as dust rose. I tossed Hazel back up against my shoulder, grinning at the large hole as Akuma jumped in soundless. "Down, down, to goblin town, down, down, to goblin town…" I muttered dryly, pinching my nose and hopping into the blackness as Hazel squeaked in fear.

I landed neatly, my eyes glowing a little in the pitch blackness as Akuma coughed softly, a light showing as he shook a flashlight he had stored in his pocket. "Demon's Log, deathdate 329. We have been dropped into a strange, alien world full of dark_ stuff_." I swung a flashlight of my own down at my feet, seeing a skull and some femurs. "Inhabitants seem to be of the deceased variety." Hazel was shaking on my shoulder, and I could feel her fear waver through our connection. "The crew is nervous and uneasy. I suspect rebellion…possible mutiny…" Akuma bonked me over the head with a moldy tibia. "Quit monologuing _Star Trek_ and start finding Kage genius." I pouted at him, rubbing my head as I snapped my fingers, dull red lights flaring up all over us. "Happy? I was seriously getting in the mood…" I grumbled, folding my arm and shifting Hazel a little indignantly as Akuma rolled his eyes and curtly beckoned, stalking away.

The red lights followed us, bathing the area in a lurid crimson glare as Hazel rubbed her eyes, flashing into view on the barrel of her weapon. "_Can you change the color or something? These lights are like bad neon signs…they make my eyes water._" she complained, and I sighed, switching her to my other shoulder. "If you want another color, get yourself a person who isn't a demon. I can do red and I can do black and in a pinch sullen orange, none of which is really better than the others." I said with a scowl, dancing over a swath of spiky flooring as Akuma walked sourly down a wall, avoiding the same. "_Sorry_." she apologized sheepishly, and I shrugged, casually shadow-walking my way through a wall of flames. "It does grate on the retinas after a while doesn't it?" I mused aloud, stuffing her into shadows and then nimbly backflipping through a maze of spikes, swords, and crushing pillars as Akuma flashed through the obstacles ahead of me, half in shadow and half in the real world.

I withdrew her once we reached a blue-painted door, Akuma readying his shadows once more. "_One…two…_" I mouthed, and he nodded fiercely. "Three!" I turned and kicked the door open, letting Akuma flip over my head, shadows at the ready, before sliding in after him. The entire room was covered in blue ceramic tiles, a pentagram marked out on the floor beneath a limp body."Yo yo, Kage are ya there?" I asked, tilting Hazel against my shoulder as the figure weakly stirred, her wrists bound together with a strange blue metal and the cuffs hooked onto a pulley system, her feet inches above the floor. "Ngh…guys?" I waved happily, silently gritting my teeth as I saw the bloody pool beneath her, a vicious bite mark on her neck and her pants torn to shreds below the knees, blood staining her otherwise unmarked skin. "You seriously had a number did on you, didn't ya?" She shrugged sheepishly, leaning her neck a little to give me a better view of the bite.

"Nasty little blood-sucking Kishin got me. I think he had a poison on his fangs though, you guys are incredibly blurry and I keep getting dizzy." she admitted, and I winced, looking at the wound and the dark blood crusted around it. Her fuzzy green eyes suddenly sharpened as Akuma approached, and I whipped around, seeing a flash of black before warm pain stung my forehead, staggering away with a snarl of pain as Hazel cried out in fear, my heart hammering. _It's okay it's okay I'm not dead it's okay it's okay, calm down and get the heck away-_ I hissed again, blurring as I jumped backward, feeling another nasty sting of pain under my collarbone, probably intended to take off my head. My blood was covering my face, so I couldn't see a thing, and I blindly dodged again, Hazel's incessant shrieking stopping me from fully shifting to shadow, and I hissed in pain as I felt something stab into my chest.

"DK!"

_Kage's POV:_

I watched in horror as DK collapsed, Hazel clattering away as Arro smirked, his right side nothing but grainy, flickering blackness that snapped and wavered as he brought his left hand back, slowly licking his fingers clean of DK's blood. "Demonic blood. I haven't tasted that in years." he mused, looking down at what I desperately hoped was only an unconscious DK as Hazel began to glow, obviously trying to shift back to human form. He glanced up to us, smirking as the right side of his face slowly formed out of the dark matter, stepping away as it slowly coalesced into his human form, the blackness vanishing without a trace. "What in the hell are you? I didn't even sense any magic…" Akuma snarled, and Arro smirked wider, bringing his still bloody hand up. "Who am I?" he purred, bringing the hand slowly to his chest and touching it to his heart as he grinned viciously at us.

"**_I am the Fragment of the Black Mass._**"

* * *

**_*As previously discussed, Yatte is a naughty demon word._**

**_Ooh, does anyone know what that means? I have plans to include the manga in the sequel, so I hope I can wrangle it. *fingers crossed* For those of you who don't know what I'm hinting at and haven't just cheated by Googling it or whatever, the Black Mass is…something. What that something is, I ain't gonna tell ya. But be reassured, it is something, and it is a Soul Eater something. It shall be made known to you at a future date, but if you've read the manga, you already kinda know what I'm talking about! (Or if you read the wiki page, which I strongly do not advise) That said, please Review, Request, Rcomment, Auf Wedersien!_**

**_8.54 PM, USA Central Time_**


	17. Dark Blood Heritage

_**Happy New Years to all you guys! *smiley face and blows party favors* I'm feeling in a write-y mood, so here goes 'nuthin. **_

_**January 3, 2014**_

* * *

_Absolute power corrupts absolutely._

_-A_

* * *

_Kage's POV:_

_Kutabare. Kutabare kutabare KUTABARE! _ I mentally swore in panic, thrashing frantically as Arro calmly approached, his thin lips set in a smug smirk. I shakily inhaled, thinking as fast and as coherently as I could. _The Black Mass…but Eibon…didn't he…and I don't see the Book anywhere…_**_this is impossible!_**_ The Black Mass is DEAD. It hasn't been seen for…since Asura was sealed away! THIS ISN'T HAPPENING!_ I thought desperately, seeing Akuma snarl and twist towards Hazel, grabbing her by her half-shifted arm and reforming her into the cannon, starting to fire as Arro smirked and his outline fizzled out again, the flickering black edges of his essence in constant flux as he merely absorbed my brother's shots, leaving me to fruitlessly claw with my physical and mental fingers at my spell and restraints as he continued to relentlessly approach.

"Yatte…c'mon ya stupid damn spell…just…let me go!" I muttered, sweat running across the stinging bite mark and sending a blast of pain rocketing through my body, one I gritted my teeth around and endured, working at the unyielding restraints._ Queenie…__Kyōfu…I know you're nothing more than a wisp in me now, but please…help us. Help them._ I mentally whispered, feeling not even a flicker within me as I clenched my fists, hating my inability to act as Akuma whizzed by me, the more grainy, flickering mass that was Arro in hot pursuit. A trickle of anger filtered into me as I saw DK moan and turn over weakly, coughing as his dark blood splattered the ground. "GODAMNIT THIS IS FOR OUR BROTHERS!" I shouted angrily, thrashing once against the cuffs before something deep, deep in my very essence thrummed, then settled.

Black tentacles of shadow whipped up from every corner of the room, and I heard startled cries as they blocked Arro, wrapping around Akuma and DK protectively as I saw the bleeding slash on my brother's forehead. That was all the time Akuma needed before he ran; slamming his hand against DK's chest as more shadows sucked them all up, vanishing into what I knew was safety. The shadows fell away into wisps as they did, and I flinched instinctively as Arro got up from his kneeling position, his coal-black eyes calm. Not enraged, not furious, not even irritated, but perfectly, absolutely, _calm_. As if he had been planning to let them get away. He slowly, quietly approached me, his footsteps deliberate and poised. "_Anata chikushō musuko no-_" I started to snarl, but stopped with a hiss as he backhanded me.

"No foul language. And speak English. The Demonic tongue grates on my eardrums." he said softly, and I turned to spit out some extra blood that had found its way into my mouth, then looked back at him. "English? You want English? YOU SON OF A-" I snarled, but this time he hit me with a solid roundhouse, making me flinch as my cheekbones broke under his hard fist. He pulled his hand away, slowly licking my blood off his knuckles as I glared hatefully at him, wanting him dead more than almost anyone else I had encountered in my enemy-filled life, even more than Jack, even more than Asura. He smirked, beginning to circle me like a shark homing in on prey as I closed my eyes, dragging in a long breath through my nose, softly listing off all the Great Old Ones I knew.

" Asura, Madness through Madness."

Step.

"Lord Death, Madness through Order."

Step.

"Eibon, Madness through Knowledge."

Step.

"Kage, Madness through Terror."

Step.

"Gekido, Demon King, Madness through Rage."

Step.

"Excalibur."

Step.

"Vajra."

Step.

"The Black Mass…Madness through Power."

Pause.

He was now directly behind me, and I inhaled slowly once more, then let it out. "The eight Great Old Ones. Likened to Gods, so powerful that their mere existence and presence drives the mortal into madness. They exist solely to spread their influence of their branch of madness. However, some are not as…_driven_ as others._**Those that have fragmented**__._" I said slyly, looking at him out of the corner of my eye as he smirked icily. "Lord Death." I smirked. "The Black Mass." I returned, practically _feeling_ the sudden tide of emotion at the retort, although he kept whatever it was hidden well under his half-smirk. I returned to looking ahead of me smugly. "Great Old Ones who created more out of themselves, sealing away their aspects therein. You are one of those fragments." I said softly, then tensed, feeling his hand on my back. "You are correct. I am not a true Great Old One. I am merely a fragment of the true Black Mass. You like that, don't you?" he asked bitterly, then knotted his fingers in my hair and jerked it back. "DON'T YOU?! YOU LOVE THE FACT YOU HAVE SO MUCH MORE POWER THAN I DO! YOU FEEL SO SMUG AND SUPERIOR ABOUT BEING A **TRUE** GREAT OLD ONE!" he raged in my face, and I held perfectly still as something fell on my cheek, be it a drop of spit, a tear, or sweat, it didn't matter.

I didn't want his disgusting essence on me.

"I know a fragment like yourself. He's polite, calm, and one hell of a fighter. He perfectly exhibits the traits he was designed to display. I do not, and have not, ever felt a single ounce of superiority over him. He is a friend and someone I am honored to fight alongside." I said quietly, smirking a little as a flash of white stripes against black hair flashed against the inside of my eyelids. Then a flash of pure white slammed down, one that had nothing to do with recollection and more to do with the fist that had cracked into my forehead, my eyes going even hazier as he shook me by the grip on my hair. "SHUT UP! I know who you're talking about! The_ Shinigami no danpen!__** I know what you feel for him!**_" he screeched, then suddenly released me, wiping both hands on the slightly grimy silk handkerchief as he gave me a disgusted look. Without another word, he turned and left, oddly enough choosing to walk as I smirked after him, pleased with the ending to our little verbal joust._ Now, all I have to do is heal myself and get the heck out of dodge. One impossibility after another in the life…_ I thought with a morbid chuckle, starting to seek out the toxin in my veins and slowly burn it out.

_Hazel's POV:  
_ I landed on something soft, then realized I had landed on my knees, looking around frantically to gasp, seeing DK unconscious with his already ethereal skin pale, Akuma leaning over him with a long slash on his forehead bleeding sluggishly. I scrambled over, gasping again as I saw the gaping, gory wound in my meister's stomach, looking around frantically for something to stop the bleeding. Akuma wordlessly handed me his jacket, and I barely spared a glance towards the slim but athletic physic it had hidden, urgently pressing it against DK's stomach as he lurched, coughing heavily and wetly as blood poured over his lips. I started to panic, looking up towards his face and touching it to wipe away the blood, only for him to lunge upright and grab my wrist. "I'M ALIVE! I'M ALIVE!" he shouted, shaking violently as I felt the fabric under my hands grow damp. "Calm down! You're opening the wound up more!" I cried out, but he didn't seem to hear me, thrashing about and crying out things in a language I had heard Kage and Akuma mutter under their breath several times before.

"_Yatte_!" Akuma muttered frantically, shouldering me out of the way and shoving both his hands down on my demon's shoulders. "CALM THE HELL DOWN MAN! DK YOU'RE GOING TO KILL YOURSELF!" he bellowed, and the cries stopped, but the demon continued to thrash, shuddering and gasping wetly as blood poured over his chin and neck, grinding a small divot in the forest floor as Akuma held him down, making me marvel silently at his strength. I gasped as I saw DK's clawing hand shatter a large rock effortlessly as he accidently slammed it down, yet Akuma held him down as if the bucking and writhing demon was only a squirming toddler. I wrapped both hands around his neck, silently asked him for forgiveness as I squeezed as hard as I could, feeling him choke under me as the flailing slowed, grew more controlled, and his hands urgently scrabbled at mine, making me hiss as the sharp nails dug gouges and slashes in my wrists and hands, effortlessly shredding my shirt sleeves.

Suddenly his blood-crusted eyes opened, and he choked one last time before going limp, making me hurriedly let go as he began to cough, closing his eyes again to do so. He sucked in a deep breath, then smirked a little. "Damn Hazel…you've got a tight grip." he said weakly, making a tiny, helpless giggle escape me, before I squeaked, a stinging –_literally_– hand smacked me over the head, Akuma's other painful smack landing on DK. "THAT WAS RECKLESS! YOU MAY BE A DEMON BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN'T DIE YOU DAMN CRETIN! _Yatte, kutabare __**yarō**_!" he bellowed, and DK actually _looked down in shame_, biting his already bloody lip. "I…it's when…Look bro, I don't plan on dying and leaving you guys to fend for yourselves. But when my face gets cut…right there…" He traced a line down his cheek a little, across the faint grey scar I had come to wonder about. "I just…I can't..it freaks me out okay? I'm fine now though. It's all good." he said seriously, his face set and calm, but still faintly shaky, as I could tell by careful observation. He then looked down. "Jeez, please don't tell me I got totaled by another tree stump. I don't think my ego can handle that kind of blow again." he said irritably, and I followed his gaze, then squeaked, hurriedly setting the jacket over his gaping stomach wound as he wheezed in pain and lay back, his eyes staring mutely at the sky, his lip caught between those hard, sharp fangs.

**_*Kutabare, as said before, is a naughty demon word._**

**_*The longer sentence was the beginnings of "You SOB"_**

**_*Fragment of the Grim Reaper_**

**_Well, that's really all I can squeeze out of my mind right now, so hope you enjoy and Emma checks in with what's going on. Danke for your time. Review, Request, Rcomment, Auf Wedersien!_**


End file.
